The Game of Worm
by Sudokori1
Summary: SI wakes up in the middle of the woods in the body of a child, with strange abilities, and a heavy helping of fear due to his knowledge of cannon. Can he survive in this world or will he die screaming for mommy?
1. Chapter 1

Hello fanfiction. This is my first attempt at fanfiction and I'm excited to hear constructive feedback so I can improve! I'm hoping to finish at least a chapter per week at the moment but that may change with school coming up. Do note that I have changed some minor mechanics of the powers in this fanfiction compared to the source. I do not own Worm or the other pieces of media I draw from. Enjoy!

* * *

I stirred awake, something hard and rough poking my back. I rolled over to get away only to realize that I'm not in my bed when I feel and hear leaves crinkling under me. My eyes shoot open and I try and sit up, taking in the environment around me. I appear to be sitting underneath a large oak tree, its girth at least three feet. Around me there is nothing but more trees and fallen leaves as far as I can see. Standing up and brushing the crushed leaves off of me I notice a few more alarming things. Besides my outfit, which is a pair of blue jeans with a brown t-shirt and bland black tennis shoes, I realize that some things have changed. My hands are smaller than I remember and the hair that usually adorns my arms is completely missing. Taking a closer look I don't see any blemishes or blisters on my hands. Even the scar I got when I was 5 is missing from my left palm. I touch my face with my left hand, alarmingly noting that all of my facial hair has been replaced by smooth skin. My increasingly panicked inspection of my body was interrupted by a sharp beeping noise in front of me. My head jerked upwards to see a baby blue colored box in the air.

 **Due to intense observation the skill "Observe" has been created**

I stood there uncomprehending for a couple moments before another screen appeared.

 **Observe (active) lvl. 1**

 **Observe allows the user to gain information of people, objects, and events. The higher the level the more detailed the information gathered.**

Reading both boxes I stand there, unable to believe what I am seeing. I reach out and touch the first blue screen. It gives a little resistance before it is pushed back an inch. I press the small X in the top right corner of the first screen and it vanishes. I look to the second screen displaying the skill "Observe" and poke it as well. It doesn't vanish until I hit the X like the first screen. I stand there in the forest for a few moments, just processing what happened.

'Is this one of those lucid dreams?' I ask myself. A few tests such as multiplying small numbers and physical pain via pinching quickly disprove that theory.

'So I apparently have a skill now. Is this like a game?'

I try to say a few words out loud, shocked at how young my voice is. It's I'm a little kid again, and due to my previous examination that seems to be the case.

"Menu. Save. Load. Title screen. Status"

At the word Status a new screen pops up. This one is colored a light brown and shows two bars, one red and one blue which i'm guessing is my hp and mp respectively. It also has a list of numbers which are apparently my stats.

Hunter Trent, Age 9

Title: none

Class: The Gamer

Lvl. 1

HP: 40/40

HP regen/s: 0.08

MP: 100/100

MP regen/s: 0.1

EXP: 0/100

Strength: 3

Vitality: 4

Agility: 4

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 10

Luck: 1

Points: 5

Each stat has a small plus button next to them, which i'm guessing allows me to put points into them. It's pretty easy to guess which stat does what. Strength is how strong I am, Vitality is my health and stamina, Agility is my quickness of movement and manual dexterity, Intelligence makes me smarter I'm guessing, Wisdom allows me to make better decisions, and luck is just luck. But why is my Luck only 1 and all my physical stats are low. Oh, and I'm apparently 9 years old now with a different name. Huh, that would explain why my physical stats suck. I should be freaking out about this a lot more than I am right now. Well whatever, I'll just keep the points I have in reserve until I figure out more about each stat.

 **For making a wise decision your wisdom has increased by 1!**

Cool, I can get wiser by not being impulsive. Now what else can this thing do? After experimenting with a few more words I discovered that saying "skills" opens up another brown screen with a scrolling bar with what appears to be skills. Each is color coded, Blue for passive and Red for active. Neat.

Gamer's Mind (Passive) lvl. MAX

Allows the user to calmly and logically think things through. Allows peaceful state of mind. Immunity to psychological effects.

Gamer's Body (Passive) lvl. MAX

Grants a body that allows for the user to live the real world like a game. Sleeping in a bed restores HP, MP and removes all status effects.

Man of Mystery (Passive) lvl. MAX

It's nearly impossible to find out your secret identity unless you allow it, powers designed to ferret out anything about your motives, identity, past, or future action return a divide by zero error, and a massive thinker headache. Cameras render your face and voice as static while people find it impossible to remember your face.

Special Snowflake (Passive) Lvl. MAX

Any attempt to copy, drain, reproduce, steal, or suppress your powers fail automatically.

Self Adaptation (Passive) lvl. MAX

Your body rapidly adapts to help you survive and thrive. Works with Gamer's body to allow your body's natural abilities to grow to superhuman levels quickly. Removed cap on physical stats and skills. Allows for the creation of new resistances to damage and environmental effects.

Observe (active) lvl. 1

Observe allows the user to gain information of people, objects, and events. The higher the level the more detailed the information gathered.

Beginner Waterbending (active) lvl. 1

Allows for the user to bend the element of water to their will. Fine control increased with wisdom.

%1 less mana used to control water

%5 increase in damage of waterbending attacks

Beginner Earthbending (active) lvl. 1

Allows for the user to bend the element of earth to their will. Fine control increased with vitality.

%1 less mana used to control earth

%5 increase in damage of earthbending attacks

Beginner Firebending (active) lvl. 1

Allows for the user to create and control the element of fire. Fine control increased with strength.

%1 less mana used to create and control fire

%5 increase in damage of firebending attacks

Beginner Airbending (active) lvl. 1

Allows for the user to control the element of air. Fine control increased with agility.

%1 less mana used to control air

%5 increase in damage of airbending attacks

After reading all of my apparent skills I just had to sit down and think for a minute. How did I get here, why do I have skills and powers, and why am I in the body of a nine year old me? I thought back to everything that happened yesterday. I woke up and did housework in the morning, ate and played some video games in the afternoon on my laptop, and then I went to work until late at night. I remember getting back home extremely tired, but I wanted to check my messages. Some friend of mine sent me another CYOA for Worm over Discord. I filled it out in a notepad and then went to sleep. Now that I think about it I do remember what I filled out for that CYOA. Gamer powers, Check. Avatar Bending, check i guess. Helpful wildcard power, check. Perks designed to protect me from other parahumans, check. Drawbacks that I kind of remember getting, not check. The expected panic attack at realising just where I am… not check. I also kinda remember that I need to survive the next ten years to 'win' and if I die… I think I died for rea. I can't really remember. I guess Gamer's Mind is keeping me calm when I would normally be hyperventilating and trying not to scream. It's kind of creepy to be honest, but nice at the same time since I can think clearly. After reading through all the screens I close them one by one. In the process I discover that I can just will the screens to move away and disappear. With one more thing to test I speak in my weird younger voice "Inventory".

Another screen appears, this time it is another brown screen with a 5x5 grid of boxes. On the bottom there are indicators for weight and money. Currently my max inventory weight is about 4 pounds and I have $0.00. Curious I click on the max weight box to find out why I can only carry 4 pounds. On contact a smaller Blue screen appears.

 **Max inventory capacity is %10 of your maximum lifting capacity.**

So I guess I can only lift 40 lbs? That's disappointing. But it's good knowing I can increase my stats through training as seen with my wisdom. Deciding to test it out I dismiss the window and pick up the rock I was sleeping on. Before testing my inventory I used observe on the rock, which just told me it was a rough textured rock, big help there. I pushed it into the screen, my fingers slipping inside the screen with little resistance. I let go of the rock and pulled my hand out. The top left box in the inventory screen now showed an image of the rock with a small 1 in the bottom right corner. I assume this means I can put multiple of the same object in here. I'll have to test that later. I looked at the weight and saw that the rock only weighed half a pound. Now for retrieval. I pushed my hand into the screen and tried to grab the rock. I felt it appear in my palm and I pulled my hand out to reveal the rock I had inserted before. This is so cool! I don't need to wear a backpack, I can carry my money so nobody could steal it if I had any money, and I can hide whatever I need to and nobody can take it away from me.

After a moment I decided that standing in one place for ten minutes in the middle of a forest isn't very productive so I began to walk in a random direction after putting the rock back in my inventory. The forest I found myself in is pretty relaxing after the initial confusion. The background noise of birds and the wind in the trees is kind of soothing. It appears to be some time in the morning, I can't tell more since I'm not good at reading the sun. While walking I used observe on everything I saw. After a few minutes walk I came upon a small valley. A small river, now wider than two or three feet, meandered through the middle while the hills surrounding this valley were only about 50ft tall sloping downwards and easily transversable if you went slow. Deciding that I had nothing better to do and it would be a great place to test out my abilities I began to descend the hill. The many roots and small trees growing on the hill gave me plenty of handholds to move from, which I needed since my body isn't as large or as athletic as i'm used to. About halfway down I received two notifications. They surprised me which caused my hand to slip and me to tumble the rest of the way down the hill.

 **Ding!**

 **Ding!**

 **-5hp**

 **-5hp**

 **-5hp**

 **Ding!**

"Owwww" I groaned, pulling myself up off of the moist dirt I landed in and brushing myself off. I angrily glared at the notifications that caused my tumble. I must have hit every damn root on the way down.

 **Due to prolonged exercise your Vitality has increased by 1!**

 **Due to using coordination to traverse difficult terrain your Agility has increased by 1!**

 **A new skill has been created by a special action!**

Following that a fourth window appeared. I dismissed the first three while I read the new skill.

 **Physical Resistance (Passive) lvl. 1**

 **The ability to resist physical damage.**

 **Resists 1% of damage from physical attacks.**

Well that's bloody useful. I check my status and see my HP at 25/50. Huh, I guess a new point in vitality doesn't come with HP, just increases the max HP I have. Good to know. From what I can see it should take a few minutes for it to fill all the way back up. I checked where I banged my arm on some stupid root and see a small cut that is bleeding slightly. As I watched the cut slowly closes, the blood vanishing, and the skin returning to normal as if nothing ever happened. All of this over the course of about a minute.

"That's so cool!" I exclaim.

It really is. No more paper cuts annoying me for days! No more minor scrapes bothering me for weeks! This is awesome! The best part is probably that I can increase the healing speed by increasing my vitality. The worst part is that at my current state 10 small cuts could kill me. Or knock me out.

'Who am I kidding. With my luck as soon as I drop to 0 HP I die and my corpse will poof into glitter and sparkles.'

I walked through the miniature valley until I found a suitable place to test my abilities and think. After a few minutes of carefully traversing the moist dirt and mossy trees I found the place. A large tree stump a few feet away from the stream. The ground around the stump was dryer and firmer than most of the surround soil which makes it perfect for figuring out what I can do. I walk over and sit on the stump to rest for a moment, even though i'm not very tired at all. I start thinking of what to do first.

'Man, I hope this works. Otherwise I'm going to have to find a way to lay low for the next decade. My family is probably worried about me'

Thoughts of my family rush to me. My brother, my sister, my father, my mother. The thought of being unable to see or talk to them for a full decade brings a frown to my face. I have no support here, nobody who would give me a place to stay, nobody who would give a fuck if I was bleeding out in the woods. God, it's only been half an hour and i'm already missing them. What will the next ten years feel like?

'I have to be strong. I need to make it through, if only for them. I'll figure it out. I'll get strong enough that nobody will fuck with me and i'll find a way to survive. I might end up fixing a few things in this world but i'll need to get stronger. Now, what's first?'

My inner monologue over, I decided to try and figure out what my mana was. So I sat in a comfortable position on the log and closed my eyes. I did some breathing exercises I half-remembered and a meditation technique I somehow know, even though I never meditated before. Is this part of the knowledge perk for avatar bending? If it is i'll need it.

Sitting in the proper position I began to relax. I first focused on my breathing, letting all my senses fall to the wayside as I focused on nothing but the breath flowing in and out of me. I began to look deeper, to feel the pulse within my veins and the beating of my own heart. After a while I noticed something else. Something more, something vibrant. I focused on this fuzzy feeling, until it started to become clearer and clearer. I began to feel it. A second pulse alongside my heartbeat, a second system within my body. It's contents were brimming with untapped power, just waiting to be released. With fingers of my willpower I brushed up against this system, and it started to flow. No, it was flowing through me before but now I could feel it as it flows through every part of my body. I spent an unknown amount of time just marveling at the feeling of pure energy flowing through my body. It was nice, peaceful. Nothing but my inner self. Of course life decided to interrupt yet again.

 **Ding!**

The unexpected noise snapped me out of my trance and nearly knocked me off of the stump I was sitting on. I opened my eyes to see another blue screen.

 **A new skill has been created through a special action.**

 **Meditation (Active & Passive) lvl. 1**

 **The ability to focus on the energy within. User cannot move while active.**

 **While active increases mana regeneration by 10%**

 **While active increases mana sensitivity by 10%**

 **Passively increases wisdom by 1%**

Well that's pretty useful. Not at the moment, but when I level it up i'll be able to recover mana rapidly when I need to. The passive increase to wisdom is nice. Looking around I realize that it's about noon now. I must have spent almost an hour meditating. I get off of the stump to get started on the most pressing issue. The fact that my strength stat is resting at a pitiful 3. Clearing away the leaves so I have a bit of room I get down on my stomach and prepare to perform push-ups. I brace myself and push with as much force as I can muster from my 9 year old arms. I push myself and with a force of will I barely manage to perform a single push-up. My arms collapse and I feel disappointed in myself before a comforting **Ding!** rings in my ears.

 **Due to pushing your muscles to the limit you have gained 1 strength!**

That's both encouraging and insulting. My limit was a single crappy push-up? But I could also permanently increase my strength by performing simple exercises. It can't be this easy, can it? After thinking it over I remember the passive ability "Self Adaptation". I guess getting stronger quickly is helpful to my survival. Also being able to recover near instantly would allow for my muscles to repair and grow constantly. In fact I can think of a few ways to use this.

 **Ding!**

 **You have gained 1 wisdom!**

Thanks game. Well if 1 push-up increased my strength then why not try as many as I can? So I got back into position and was about to start doing push-ups until I thought of the annoying ding sound that would keep interrupting me. So I started trying to find a way to turn off the dinging.

"Settings" seemed to be the right word as a brown menu popped up with a few options available. I read them over before turning off notification sounds, turning on mental commands for skills, turning my hp and mp bars visible if not full, and keeping everything else the same. Most of the options were grayed out at the moment and I don't know why. With that problem solved I returned to my position and started doing push-ups. At first I could only do a couple, but then I started doing sets of 5. Then sets of 10. Then 5 sets of 10. After that the push-ups were too easy, I was getting too strong for lifting my own weight to be a challenge. I was less than 100 pounds, I'm in my 9-year old body remember. After what must have been 20 minutes since I started I stood up and was assaulted by notification screens.

 **Your strength has increased by 1!**

 **Your strength has increased by 1!**

 **Your strength has increased by 1!**

 **Your vitality has increased by 1!**

 **Your strength has increased by 1!**

 **Your vitality has increased by 1!**

 **Your strength has increased by 1!**

 **Your vitality has increased by 1!**

Holy crap that was effective. Dismissing the windows I summoned my stat screen by thinking the word "status" really hard. Looking at it I saw that my hp has doubled since the time I woke up today. Now that most of my stats are 5 or above, except that damn luck, I should try to figure out those elemental bending skills. Looking at them I decided to try out waterbending first. From the information that I know from the mental archive the first step of water bending is to get into a tai chi stance. Using this knowledge I move myself into a rough approximation of a beginner's stance and go through the motions. My movements are jerky and abrupt much to my displeasure but soon enough I get a notification.

 **Due to a special action a skill has been created!**

 **Basic Tai Chi (active) lvl 1**

 **A chinese martial art that features slow movements and elegant forms that evoke the feel of flowing water.**

 **Increases control of waterbending techniques by %5**

 **Decreases cost of waterbending techniques by %1**

 **Increases wisdom by %1**

I continue to practice this technique for a while until I receive a notification that Tai Chi has leveled up. I am by no means even a beginner but I'm feeling a bit more comfortable. Now to try to control water. I look to the small stream only about five feet away, the water is inches deep at most but quick moving. To begin I resume my stance facing the stream and begin the circular movements as before except this time I'm trying to, for lack of better words, 'pass on my momentum to the water'. At first I just feel silly trying to make water move, but then I see a bulge in the surface of the water. It continues to rise as I continue the circular motions, this time with a rising pattern them. A small tendril of water begins to rise and coalesces into a sphere of water about a foot above the stream. As I continue my dance the sphere grows in girth to about six inches. I was so excited, I can do this. I can actually do this. I looked over to my MP bar and saw that in the 20 seconds or so I was doing this I've lost about %80 of my mana. After another 5 or 6 seconds my MP was depleted and the small sphere of water I summoned splashed back into the creak.

 **Beginner Waterbending's level has increased by 1!**

I couldn't help but smile. I can do this. I can do these things. I can become great! I can SURVIVE! I just need to learn how to use all of my bending skills before then. At that thought a blue window appeared in front of me.

 **A new quest has been created!**

 **The first step**

 **Objective: Reach level 10 with all 4 bending styles**

 **Bonus Objective: Reach level 10 with all 4 corresponding martial art styles.**

 **Reward: 100 exp**

 **Bonus reward: 100 exp**

 **Failure: none, sadness**

 **Time limit: none.**

 **Yes/No**

So quests are a thing, that's cool. After reading it over I pressed Yes and the screen vanished. I mean, I was going to try and do all of what it was asking regardless so this is just a bonus. With my new goal in mind I sat down to meditate to restore my MP. This was going to be a long, productive day.

Stats at end of chapter 1

Hunter Trent, Age 9

Title: none

Class: The Gamer

Lvl. 1

HP: 80/80

HP regen/s: 0.32

MP: 100/100

MP regen/s: 0.12

EXP: 0/100

Strength: 9

Vitality: 8

Agility: 5

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 12.36

Luck: 1

Points: 5


	2. Chapter 2

Meditating with zero mana is a interesting thing. The natural flow of the energy subsystem inside my body had almost flatlined. It was just a trickle of energy that was left, If I was being generous. After a few moments I felt a subtle pulse and my internal system has specks of new energy entering it. I continued to meditate for a while, observing these pulses as the 'veins' of my magic filled to the brim. Once I was refreshed I opened my eyes and looked without turning my head. I could still feel the energy within me as it flowed through my body, but it wasn't my only input now. It was peaceful like this, the only sounds are the trickle of the stream and the rustling of leaves in the wind. I also saw another notification screen.

 **Meditation's level has increased by 1!**

I dismissed the screen with a thought and decided to try and practice waterbending some more. As soon as I moved my body my concentration broke and meditation immediately ceased.

'That's disappointing. Though the skill did say I couldn't move while meditating'.

Getting off of the stump I yet again got into a standard Tai Chi stance and began the movements. Again I drew a tendril of water from the river that collapsed into a small two inch diameter ball. Instead of leaving it idle I beckoned it towards me. Keeping an eye on my mana I estimated I has about 40 seconds before I was empty. The water began to move towards me slowly, maybe a foot per second, but eventually it rested three feet off of the ground in front of my chest. On a whim I used 'Observe' on it.

 **River water (potable)**

 **Restores 5 hp**

That's useful. Noticing my low mana I decided to try and push it away as fast as possible. My Tai Chi momentarily quickened in a pushing gesture and the orb of water flew through the air and splashed up against a nearby tree.

'That wouldn't do anything against a person, or anything I'll need to fight. Maybe i'm doing something wrong or i'm just too new at waterbending.'

Deciding to try something different I start practicing Tai Chi again until my mana regenerates. Doing so gives me two new notifications.

 **Beginner Tai Chi's level has increased by 1!**

 **Your Agility has increased by 1!**

Yay. After about 10 more minutes of practicing Tai Chi my mana has mostly refilled. Again I brought up a tendril of water but instead of making a rough orb I tried to extend the tendril into a whip. At first it failed and splashed on the ground. But eventually I managed to create a whip-like shape. Now to test. I looked around and spotted a sapling about a dozen or so feet away. I lashed the whip out at the sapling and it bent sharply under the impact. Now _that's_ what i'm talking about. I easily reformed the whip after the strike, initially it dispersed but I can still see the whip. As I smiled at my victory another window appeared.

 **A skill has been created through a special action!**

 **Water whip (active) lvl 1**

 **A basic technique that creates hardened whips of water to strike at foes or manipulate objects.**

 **Increases strength of whips by %5**

 **Decreases cost of skill by %1**

 **Max # of whips: 1**

 **Beginner waterbending's level has increased by 1!**

Nice! This will come in handy. But enough with Waterbending, I need to practice the other 3 styles. Dropping the water tendril and letting my body relax I decided to try earthbending next. So first things first I retrieved the rock from my inventory and placed it on the stump nearby. I then got into the basic earthbending stance my mental archive provided for me and practiced it for a few minutes before I got a notification.

 **A skill has been created through a special action!**

 **Basic Hung Ga Kung Fu (Active) lvl 1**

 **A Chinese martial art that features deep, low stances and strong hand techniques.**

 **Increases control of earthbending techniques by %5**

 **Passively decreases cost of earthbending techniques by %1**

 **Passively increases vitality by %1**

I felt how the mana in my body flowed differently while doing this. While doing Tai Chi the mana flowed much like water through my veins. But while practicing this style my mana felt more… solid. As if it's waiting for the right moment to be released. I stood in the stance for a minute before focusing on the rock on the stump. Remembering the water ball I decide to try and bring the rock to me. I stepped back and pulled both fists back, willing the rock to come at me. Nothing. Hmm, oh yeah, the encyclopedic knowledge I have. I keep forgetting about it. From what I know earthbending works best when your feet are touching the earth and the target is hard rock touching the ground. Dropping the stance I removed my shoes and socks and put them in my inventory. I noticed my feet were smaller and softer than I remember. No calluses on my heel nor the scar I got while camping 6 years ago. My toenails are also trimmed short, as are my fingernails now that I noticed. I hope Gamer's Body means I don't need to trim my nails, because I don't know when I'll next see a nail clipper. I set the rock on the dirt nearby and standback in my stance, feeling how the cool moist dirt under my feet gives slightly. Mentally preparing myself I will my energy out to the rock as I make a sharp upward movement with my arms. The rock instantly responds, shooting up to eye level and remaining there. I decide to get a closer look and pull back my fist, willing the movement to transfer to the rock. In the blink of an eye the rock goes from floating to slamming into my forehead, knocking me on my ass.

 **-30 HP**

 **Physical Resistance's level has increased by 1!**

Owwwww. I reach up and gently touch where the rock slammed into my forehead and winced when it brushed up against an open gash. Bring my hand back my fingers were red and I could feel a trickle of blood forming between my eyes.

"Why did I do that?" I wonder aloud.

The form was good, the mana control was good, the target was good. Thinking it over it was probably the lack of weight of the rock and me forgetting to make it stop. From what my mental archive is telling me is that I forgot to open my palm when I wanted the rock to cease its movement. Looking at my HP bar I can see that it is about two thirds full, and it ticks up another sliver of red while I am looking at it. It looks like my HP recovers a lot quicker than my MP does. I wonder why. My physical stats are lower than my mental stats so shouldn't I be getting more MP regen? Bringing up my stat screen and passive skills while I heal I look over them in detail. After a minute I think I found the culprit.

 **Self Adaptation (Passive) lvl. MAX**

 **Your body rapidly adapts to help you survive and thrive. Works with Gamer's body to allow your body's natural abilities to grow to superhuman levels quickly. Removed cap on physical stats and skills. Allows for the creation of new resistances to damage and environmental effects.**

If I'm understanding this right my body 'rapidly adapting' the condition of being damaged could be why my natural physical recovery is so much faster than my 'spiritual energy' recovery used for bending. At this point my HP has finally recovered and I tested that by feeling the place where the gash used to be. All I feel is smooth skin, even the blood is gone from where it was on my fingers. That could be useful in leaving behind less DNA evidence when I unwillingly get myself into a fight.

Fully recovered I return to my practice after finding a few more suitably sized stones in the stream. I only needed to practice for a few minutes before I got a couple notifications.

 **Basic Earthbending's level has increased by 1!**

 **Basic Hung Ga Kung Fu's level has increased by 1!**

Great, now for airbending. Putting myself into the stance my archive told me was correct I began to perform basic routines. It reminded me greatly of Tai Chi, except more free flowing and much quicker movements. After a few minutes of trying out the style I received the expected notification.

 **A skill has been created through a special action!**

 **Basic Baguazhang (Active & Passive) lvl 1**

 **A Chinese martial art that features free flowing movements and light steps that evoke the feel of wind.**

 **Increases control of airbending techniques by %5**

 **Passively decreases cost of airbending techniques by %1**

 **Passively increases dexterity by 1%**

Now to control the air! I started with some sweeping motions and began to will my mana into use. My mana felt different now. Similar to when using waterbending my mana felt easier to flow, but even moreso now. Like it was a wind within myself waiting to be used. The air responded and a light gust of wind swept around me following my movements. I did so again and again, creating a little dust devil in front of me. I played with it for a minute but before long my mana was used up and a notification appeared. Man am I getting a lot of those lately.

 **Basic Airbending's level has increased by 1!**

Without stopping my routine I continued to practice until my mana has regenerated. After about 5 minutes I got a notification that said my Baguazhang has leveled up. With that out of the way I decided to finally get started discovering Firebending. It was a scary thing to be honest and why I left it for last. I don't want to start a forest fire by accident since I'm pretty sure I'd die and the whole forest would be ruined. So before I started I prepared my little field. I brushed more leaves away and used waterbending to double douse the surrounding leaves and saplings. With that came another point in dexterity from repetitive fine movement. Now everything was set I needed to practice the style that comes with firebending, which is somewhat familiar from old TV shows and movies I remember watching. I set up a basic offensive stance and practice a few punches. After a dozen or so punches I got the notification.

 **A skill has been created through a special action!**

 **Basic Northern Shaolin Kung Fu (Active & Passive) lvl 1  
A Chinese martial art that features long range techniques, wide stances, kicking and leaping techniques, whirling circular blocks, and aggressive attacks.  
Increases control of firebending techniques by %5  
Increases damage of physical attacks by %5  
Passively decreases cost of firebending techniques by %1  
Passively increases strength by %1  
**

So THIS is the style I'll be using offensively. Most of the other styles are better for dodging, redirecting, or withstanding punishment but this one seems to be about direct attacks. I practice a few more punches before I paid attention to how my mana feels. It felt, volatile. Like lighter fluid in my veins, just a spark away from bursting with searing energy. Not exactly like it but as close as I could describe it. Turning towards the stump I decided it was the safest target as the bark was rotten, also damp due to my preparations earlier. I punched and directed my mana out of my fist. The effect was instantaneous, a small burst of flame came from my knuckles before dissipating quickly. Looking at the blue bar in the top left of my vision I noticed a full tenth of my mana was used up doing that. Deciding to try a bit more mana I pushed about half of what I had into my fist and tried again. The effect was noticeable, instead of a small burst of flame it was as if a flamethrower was flickered on for a second there. But I think I miscalculated how I released the mana because instead of appearing from my knuckles it flowed from my palm through my fingers.

 **-50 hp**

I cursed heavily under my breath as I held my severely burned fingers with my other hand.

'Goddammit it hurts!'

Doing the first thing that came to mind I rand over to the stream and shoved my fingers into the cool water. It soothed the pain slightly, but I just had to bear with it. Looking at my health bar I went pale as I noticed I lost over half my health because of that. Looking at my fingers I noticed that they were suffering from at least second degree burns. The skin wasan angry red and I could see the blisters rapidly forming as I watched. At this moment I remembered how that orb of water I bended could restore HP. Looking at the clear river water I used 'observe' just to make sure.

 **River water (potable)**

 **Drinking this will restore small amounts of hp.**

 **Observe's level has Increased by 1!**

 **Observe will now show level of other creatures.**

Dismissing all three windows I saw a fourth window I must have missed on my dash to the water.

 **A skill has been created through a special action!**

 **Heat resistance (Passive)**

 **The ability to resist the damage from sources of extremely high temperature, usually fire**

 **Resists %1 of heat damage**

 **Heat resistance's level has increased by 1!**

Well isn't that fucking useful. I'm not going to enjoy training that or my normal physical resistance. But back to my crispy digits. Using my good hand to keep my balance I bent over and took a couple gulps of water from the creek.

 **+5 hp**

 **+5 hp**

It tasted horrible, but it was sort of refreshing since I haven't drank anything all day. Glancing at my HP bar I let out a sigh to see it a bit past the halfway mark. Checking my hand I saw that the blisters were mostly gone and that my burn has decreased in severity somewhat. I decided to let my (un)natural healing take care of the rest. So I stood by the river watching as my hands slowly mended themselves. The blisters deflated as the skin started patching itself together. Once the skin was repaired the sensitive red skin began to lighten until my fingers were back to normal. It only took about two minutes for them to heal, which still shocks me. Being able to recover like this only makes it so my opponents won't hold back, not knowing about my invisible HP limit. Which means I need to increase my max HP as much as possible, which also means I need to find a way to quickly train vitality and get EXP to level up. But the only way I know how to get EXP so far is through the single quest I've received and nothing else. Well, I guess I needed to practice anyways and this is as good as a incentive I've ever seen. I got back to my little practice area and just sat down for a minute.

'I need to train my bending styles and martial arts but I also need to improve my resistances and level up. Will I have enough time before nightfall?'

A quick check showed that I might have a couple hours left until sunset.

'Okay. I'll need a shelter for the night but I don't have a tent or a lot of sticks. Maybe I could make one?'

Thinking it over while skimming my mental archive I decided that earthbending a simple dome of solid rock or dirt could work, I just need to work on my control until then. As with my resistances I decided that while working on my other skills if I ended up hurting myself then that'll level them up. For my base stats it seems to be that just doing what I'm doing would work for now. Standing up I settle into the stance to practice earthbending some more. I need to get proficient enough before nightfall and I have no idea how long that will take. So with a sigh of resignation I begin to practice bending.

 **1 hour 36 minutes later…**

Panting I sit down, just trying to catch my breath. Non-stop exercise is really hard to do, even if your body can recover from it. I managed to get earthbending up to level 12 before I felt like I could create a makeshift shelter for the night. Resting with meditation in between has raised its level to a respectable 7. I also got basic hung ga kung fu up to level 10 before I decided that was enough. I also got two points of dexterity for all the practice precise movements. Instead of practicing more in the minature valley after that I began to look for a suitable place to hold up for the night. Climbing out of the valley gave me a third point in agility which was nice. After leaving the valley I found a suitable spot about a hundred yards away. It was mostly flat land with little vegetation around. It seems a nearby fallen tree used to shade the spot from sunlight, which was why there was no large shrubs or plentiful undergrowth here. I spent a few minutes clearing the area of large branches before it was clean enough for what I needed. Before I started try and make the dome I noticed the fallen tree trunk and had an idea. The tree trunk was about a foot wide on average, it was cracked and separated from the rest of the tree near the top. The log itself only about 15 feet long with a few branches. Most of the leafy branches were past the cracked section. I tried lifting up one end of the log and failed utterly. Another try and another failure, at least this time I got a notification.

 **Your strength has increased by 1!**

Encouraged by this I began trying to lift this end of the log, which must have weighed over 500 pounds, with my 9-year old body. The results were surprising. After a bout ten minutes of constant attempts I managed to get to the point I could lift one end of the log above my head, letting the other half rest on the ground. I kept up that position, the strain on my arms lessing ever so slightly over the course of ten minutes until I got bored. Setting it down I looked around at the notifications that I've been ignoring.

 **Your strength has increased by 1! X 7**

 **Your Vitality has increased by 1! X 5**

Holy crap. Looking at my stats they read:

 **Hunter Trent, Age 9  
Title: none  
Class: The Gamer  
Lvl. 1  
HP: 140/140  
HP regen/s: 0.98  
MP: 100/100  
MP regen/s: 0.13  
EXP: 0/100  
Strength: 16.32  
Vitality: 14.3  
Agility: 10.2  
Intelligence: 10  
Wisdom: 13.2  
Luck: 1  
Points: 5  
**

So I heal about 1 HP per second now? That cool. It also seems that only a whole point in a stat increases its effect, which is kind of disappointing to be honest. From what I can tell it seems that holding a large load increases my vitality while actually lifting it increased my strength. Looking around I noticed it was getting darker so I needed to make the shelter quick. I'll have to bench press this thing in the morning. First in crafting my shelter was getting into the stance and feeling the energy within me respond accordingly, becoming easier to use than if I was standing still. I first used it to clear away all the small vegetation by moving a thin layer of dirt on top to the side, exposing the soft dirt and clay to the air. The space is about 6 feet in diameter and circular as I could make it. I'm surprised there aren't many bugs under the topsoil, but whatever. I walked to the center of the circle and began to draw up hard earth around the edges. The earth curved inward slightly and rumbled softly as it rose and I had to stop when the wall was about a foot tall so I could meditate. It only took another full bar of MP to complete my makeshift shelter for tonight. I was concealed in a egg-shaped dome about 4 or so feet tall, enough for me to stand up and wide enough I could lay down without my head or feet touching the edges. I left a hole in the top so I could breath, let light in, and listen to background noises of the forest. I sat down on the cool earth and just relaxed, not meditating.

"What now?" I asked myself.

Well there are a lot of things an elemental bender could do, according to my mental archive. I could eventually do truly impressive things like create tsunamis, move entire landmasses, spew fire as hot as the core of the sun, and fly. There's also this thing called Energy Bending but the archive is a little sparse on that. All i know is that I probably need to master all 4 bending styles before I can attempt it. But the people, no. The monsters in this world could do much worse. Bonesaw could release a virus to make an entire town's population explode into gore, the Endbringers are unstoppable city-killing monsters, and all the other parahumans never mentioned in canon that I could end up fighting. Not to mention the villains I do know about. God, I hope I can fix something in this world. At the very least maybe I can somehow convince eidolon to go to therapy so the Endbringers stop causing so much damage. Or I could convince Alexandria to kill him, good luck there. Helping taylor isn't really a priority to be honest. Me just being here means that timeline butterflies caused by my presence could end up with her killed in the leviathan attack some time in… May I think. Also the only reason I'd want to help her is because I read about all her problems and sympathised with her. Given how sucky the Worm universe is there's probably a million other people just like Taylor I could be helping on Earth Bet, not to mention the millions of people with a worse deal than she has. And speaking of the Endbringers, Leviathan and the other Endbringers could end up attacking different places and my entire knowledge of canon would be useless. That's not even getting started on what I should do now. I know I should complete the quest before I do anything else, but it's getting kind of boring in this forest. Sure its peaceful and all but there's nothing to do but train and train. I don't think I need to eat, drink, or even sleep but that doesn't mean I don't want to do those things. It's going to get lonely here too, especially since there's literally nobody on this world who knows I even exist yet and my family and friends are back on my world.

Frowning I sigh heavily and layed down on the cool earth, the sky almost pitch black now, reducing my visibility reduced to zero. What I need to focus on is the here and now. After I finish getting all the other bending styles and martial arts to at least level 10 and raise my physical stats I can work on finding civilization. At that thought a new notification appeared in front of me.

 **A new quest has been created!**

 **Leaving the nest**

 **Objective: Leave the forest and find civilization**

 **Bonus objective: Complete within 2 days.**

 **Reward: 200 exp**

 **Bonus reward: $20**

 **Failure: Loneliness, boredom, and eventual depression**

 **Time limit: none**

 **Yes/No**

I sat back up and began to read the screen. The blue screen did not seem to emit light as my surroundings were still the pitch black of night. A reward that includes is definitely tempting, especially since my net worth right now is nada. Deciding that 2 days is a good deadline to leave I pressed 'Yes' and the screen disappeared. Missing the not-light of the screen I decided to try and conjure up a small bit of fire on my palm to act as a candle. Since it was a little cramped in here I decided to summon the smallest yet hottest flame I could. After a moment my little shelter was filled with an amber light as a naked flame appeared above my open palm. I enjoyed the warmth from the flame as it chased away the coolness of night. Taking a peek at my MP bar I saw that I could probably hold this for a minute or two before I ran out of mana. Not wanting to lose this comfortable warmth so quickly I closed my eyes and began meditating. Not feeling the absence of heat I opened my eyes and saw the flame still there, confirming that I could bend and meditate at the same time. But I also saw something else. If I focused enough I could barely make out a faint white glow in my arms, and this glow was slightly brighter in the arm holding the flame. The mana clearly flowing into my palm. I could feel and see the movement of my mana to feed the flame keeping me warm.

'So this is what my mana system looks like'

Moving very slowly, I managed to turn my head downwards to inspect the rest of my body. Suffice to say it was beautiful. My body was covered in faintly glowing white lines, Like a complex cardiovascular system diagram. There were lines travelling up and down all of my limbs and torso, the lines were gradually dimming as I kept feeding mana to the flame. Eventually the lines faded and my mana was empty, the flame disappearing and along with it the warmth it brought. I kept meditating though, eager to see the lines in my flesh and observe how it moved and flowed throughout my body. The mana regenerated slowly, but faster than usual due to my meditating, and I could see the lines forming again. Once they were full I tried to summon a flame again without moving. It wasn't working so after a few more tries I stopped meditating for a moment to flick my wrist in the required fashion to allow my mana to work. The flame appeared again and I immediately resumed meditating. A notification also appeared after a moment.

 **Beginner Firebending's level has increased by 1!**

I dismissed it with a thought and continued to meditate while observing the flow of energy in my veins. I decided that this would be a suitable substitution for sleep and I spent the rest of the night meditating and summoning flames. It wasn't actually that boring to be honest. I was once told there were three things a person could look at forever. Flowing water, a phone screen, and the flames of a fire. Just the sight of a open flame above my hand with no visible source transfixed me for some time. The movements of the flame constantly changing from the wind and air pressure kept my attention for hours. By the time the first light of dawn shone through the hole in my roof I had increased my Basic firebending skill by 21 levels, meditation by 11 levels, and ended up killing about a dozen moths who got too close to the flame. I also got a point in intelligence from keeping concentration for long periods of time. But like all good things this must come to an end. I stood up, noting the lack of any exhaustion or cramps from staying up all night in a sitting position. Getting into the required stance I began lowering the walls of my temporary domicile back into the earth. Since I was being assisted by gravity it only took my whole MP bar and a half of a full one to get the job done. I'm seriously getting annoyed by my small mana pool, I hope this level up improves that. With all that done I replaced the dirt I moved to the side back to where it was before. A bit of touch-up earthbending and the ground was back to normal, as if it was never disturbed. Now lets see about bench pressing that log...


	3. Chapter 3

I decided that this morning should be dedicated to raising my physical stats since being faster, tougher, and stronger would be handy if I got attacked by a wild animal or hobo on my way through the forest. To begin with I started with the log from last night. I pondered how I would go about lifting it without putting myself in a position to get crushed. Thinking it over I decided to use earthbending to solve the problem. I first cleared away some branches from the ground around the center of the log. Then I used earthbending to create a rectangular shaped depression below the log, about a foot deep and wide enough to easily move into and out of. That done I got to the dirty work of crawling underneath it on my back, getting into a position where I could push up at the log.

'I hope self-adaptation works like this'

With a heave and a groan of effort I pushed on the log with all that my little arms could give. The log refused to budge, its weight just too great. I kept trying regardless, I knew this was the path to superhuman strength, no normal 9 year old could even lift one end of the log as high as I did. I can do this, I can get stronger, I can _survive_ in this world.

With my inspiration came a notification. I couldn't see what it had on it from my angle but I knew that it meant what I was doing was working. So I continued trying to bench press that log. My adaptation ability repairing and improving my muscles at an astounding rate if the notification screens popping up were any indication. Shame I couldn't read any at this angle. I kept it up, resting every once in awhile after my arms burned so hard I couldn't keep pushing. But eventually my work paid off. It was a small creaking sound from the log, and I felt my arms move upward a smidge. The smile on my face must have been huge, it was working! I kept pushing, getting another smidge higher before I had to rest again. Taking the opportunity I slid out from under the log and took a look at all the new screens. They're all jumbled up on top of each other, covering what each other said. So I pulled them all into a stack of screens in front of me to read them one by one.

 **Your strength has increased by 1!**

 **Your vitality has increased by 1!**

 **Your strength has increased by 1!**

 **Your strength has increased by 1!**

 **Your strength has increased by 1!**

 **Your vitality has increased by 1!**

On and on they went. After counting them all it looked like I increased my strength quite a bit. A whole lot actually, a total of 14 points. My vitality also increased by a total of 6 points which is kind of weird. I guess it'll increase more once I actually start lifting the log and holding it there. Dismissing all the boxes I decided to try and finish. Looking around I noticed that the sunlight shining through the leaves has gotten brighter, so sunrise is over and the day has begun. With that I get back under the log and start pushing again. The log rises about an inch, and that's as much as I can manage. I let the log back down and start pushing again. It takes about twenty reps before I feel a shift and suddenly I can push the log even higher. A full 6 inches at least. One side is tilted downward and I can tell one end of the log is resting on the ground. I slower lower the log and then push again. I can't believe it, I am bench pressing a log that must weigh at least 400 pounds! I continue doing so, my progress increasing over the course of an hour to the point that I can bench press the log at least fifteen times before needed to stop. I continue until I can perform a satisfactory 5 sets of 20 with only a moment's rest inbetween. Figuring that it'll do for now I get up and sort out the notifications yet again.

It turns out that bench pressing something 4 or 5 times heavier than you increases your strength and vitality by a lot. In total I got another 8 points in strength and 6 in vitality. Getting out from under the log I pull up my stats to take a look at what I'm at.

 **Hunter Trent, Age 9  
Title: none  
Class: The Gamer  
Lvl. 1  
HP: 270/270  
HP regen/s: 3.64  
MP: 110/110  
MP regen/s: 0.15  
EXP: 0/100  
Strength: 38.38 (1% bonus)  
Vitality: 27.5 (10% bonus)  
Agility: 10.2 (2% bonus)  
Intelligence: 11  
Wisdom: 14.52 (21% bonus)  
Luck: 1  
Points: 5  
**

I think I may have overdone it a bit. I stood there for a second trying to figure out what a 38 strength meant.

'Maybe since 10 is about average, since that's what my int and wis started as, I'm probably about 4 times stronger than the average person?'

With no way to test out this theory I just shrugged and started walking to the mini valley where I could practice my bending some more.

A short walk there and I descended the hill, much easier than my first time around, and returned to the same area I was in before. I needed to raise my other bending styles as quickly as possible, earth and firebending excepted. So which one first? Thinking it over I realized that while my firebending skill increased last night the accompanying martial art did not, and leveling up that would increase my strength by a not insubstantial amount. So I stood in the proper stance for Northern Shaolin Kung Fu and began practicing punches, kicks, blocks, and retreats. For this to work well I started constantly referencing my mental archive to give myself corrections in posture and form. First thing I corrected was taking my shoes off and storing them in my inventory, it just felt better practicing this barefoot. It was also difficult to properly correct myself since I couldn't really tell if I overextended my left leg in a kick when I'm supposed to look forward or if I'm overextending in a punch or just bad at punching. But I kept it up, no pain no gain. Also I am frightened of the kind of things I'll eventually end up fighting. Fear is a pretty good motivator.

 **Basic Northern Shaolin Kung Fu's level has increased by 1!**

Happy with my progress I kept going. But it was kind of hard to train my punches on just thin air, so I thought of a solution. Stopping my training for a moment I switched styles to earthbending and summoned a pillar of stone in front of me. Doing so drained most of my mana but gave me a suitable target and a notification.

 **Beginner Earthbending's level has increased by 1!**

The pillar was about 1 foot in diameter, cylindrical, and about my height. If I had to guess the pillar was made of granite Smiling I began to practice in earnest, using the pillar as a punching bag for my techniques. My first punch did nothing but break the skin on my knuckles.

 **-10 hp**

The pain faded quickly and within five seconds I punched the pillar a second time with my other fist.

 **-10 hp**

The pain stung like hell but with my (un)natural regeneration it faded quickly. Now I was never someone with a high pain tolerance, a small cut or bruise would have me wincing all day and I think I nearly cried one time when I scraped my knee pretty badly riding my bike. But when you only have to suffer the pain for less than 5 seconds it quickly becomes tolerable. My natural instinct to not hurt myself subsided somewhat when I knew I wasn't permanently injuring myself. So I continued to practice my punches and kicks on the solid rock pillar I summoned. Each punch took off 10 or 15 points of HP and each kick took off a little more. But then I got a notification after my fourth punch.

 **Physical resistance's level has increased by 1!**

I opened up the skill, curious to see what it was at now.

 **Physical Resistance (Passive) lvl. 3  
The ability to resist physical damage.  
Resists 3% of damage from physical attacks.  
**

Wait a minute. Does this mean if I get it up to level 100 I'll be immune to physical damage? After a moment of thought my face contorted into a gleeful smile.

'This skill is so cool. If it actually works I could eventually be invulnerable to damage. Add in the heat resistance and others I may find and I'll be a walking alexandria!'

Excited I put a little more force into the next punch and ended up splitting open the skin on my knuckles again, and a small bit of dust fell off of the pillar.

 **-20 HP**

Ow.

After about a half hour of training like this I had raised physical resistance's level by 6 and has raised Northern Shaolin Kung Fu's level by 7. I also got another point in agility which is nice. The pillar has seen better days to be honest. At the moment it has cracks and dents covering the top half of the thing with small chunks missing here and there. I kept going, my kicks becoming faster, my punches hitting harder, and my stance improving. With one final punch the top of the pillar snapped off and my knuckles broke.

 **-37 HP**

 **Physical Resistance's Level has increased by 1!**

 **Basic Northern Shaolin Kung Fu's level has increased by 1!  
**

Panting I sat down to catch my breath. I looked up at the broken pillar of rock and marvelled. I definitely was more than four times stronger than a normal person. A moment passed and I stood up, all my exhaustion and wounds healed. With Firebending and its style up to at least level 10 my work continues with waterbending. First I try to repair the pillar as best as I can but end up just sinking it back into the ground and bringing up a fresh one, meditating to quickly refresh my mana in between. I started practicing Tai chi, using my mental archive to once again correct my posture, stance, and movements. It was slower, more relaxed than the kung fu, but nonetheless had a purpose. Tai chi isn't about pummeling your opponent with punches and kicks, but redirecting attacks. So I practiced, occasionally creating water whips to strike at the pillar when my mana could handle it. After about twenty or thirty minutes I sat down to rest for a moment. I had increased the Basic Tai Chi skill by 8 levels but water bending only increased by 6 levels. It also leveled up Water Whip by 4 levels which is nice. The pillar on the other hand was completely unscathed, aside from a single small scratch at eye level. It was just that water isn't that great against solid unmoving opponents. My water whip could trip someone up and I may be able to restrain them but direct damage is obviously not what it's intended to do. So I looked through my mental archive and found something that may eventually fix this issue.

'I might not be skilled enough to use this but it's worth a shot'

Returning to my stance I pulled a bit of water from the brook to hover in front of me. Taking a deep breath I breathed out onto the water, willing my mana to solidify the orb. My mana didn't react and nothing happened. I tried again, pushing more mana out into the water with a purpose. After a couple more tries I felt like something clicked and most of my remaining mana flowed from my mouth in a puff of fog. The fog froze the water sphere solid in the span of two seconds, which was exactly when my mana pool emptied. The ice ball fell to the ground while I was left with new notifications

 **A new skill has been created through a special action!**

 **Phase Shifting (active) lvl 1**

 **The art of forcing water from one state of matter to another.**

 **Increases speed of Phase shifting by %5**

 **Decreases cost of shifting by %1**

 **Beginner WaterBending's level has increased by 1!**

It worked. I knelt down and picked up the little ball of ice I created. It was cold to the touch and slippery just like regular ice. I tossed it back into the brook, no reason to keep it. Dismissing the notifications I began meditating again. After another ten or so minutes of meditation followed by failed attempts at making an ice whip I finally managed to get basic waterbending to level 10. Now for the last bending type i'd need for the quest. I sunk the pillar of granite back into the earth and began practicing Basic Baguazhang. This time since I was constantly referencing my Archive I quickly began leveling up the technique. After about 5 minutes I also started practicing airbending. Instead of just blowing wind around I tried to coalesce it. The first few attempts just ended up with dust devils and disappointment. But on my fifth try I fixed my mistakes and managed to create a small sphere of swirling air in my palms. It was about four inches in diameter and unstable. It would wobble and bulge so I constantly had to correct it. This ended up helping to level up both Basic Baguazhang and Airbending at the same time. With breaks in between to meditate It took me about an hour to raise Beginner Airbending's level up to 9 and Basic Baguazhang's level up to 10. I could now keep the air ball mostly stable for the entire time my mana lasted, which was about thirty seconds. It took about 5 minutes to meditate and refill my pool again but it was worth it. With two more air spheres I crossed the invisible line and notification boxes appeared.

 **Beginner Airbending's level has increased by 1!**

 **A quest has been completed!**

 **The first step**

 **Objective: Reach level 10 with all 4 bending styles. Completed!**

 **Bonus Objective: Reach level 10 with all 4 corresponding martial art styles. Completed!**

 **Reward: 100 exp**

 **Bonus reward: 100 exp**

 **+200 exp!**

 **Your level has increased by 1!**

I whooped and woohooed. I raised my hands and shouted "Yes Yes Yes. Finally I did it!". I closed all the screens and eagerly opened up my status screen.

 **Hunter Trent, Age 9**

 **Title: none**

 **Class: The Gamer**

 **Lvl. 2**

 **HP: 540/540**

 **HP regen/s: 7.29**

 **MP: 220/220**

 **MP regen/s: 0.33**

 **EXP: 100/200**

 **Strength: 41.8 (10% bonus)**

 **Vitality: 27.5 (10% bonus)**

 **Agility: 12.1(10% bonus)**

 **Intelligence: 11**

 **Wisdom: 15.48 (29% bonus)**

 **Luck: 1**

 **Points: 10**

Finally, I did it. I leveled up! My chances of survival just doubled along with my HP and MP. Looking at my stats I realized that every stat except luck and Intelligence is getting a boost from a skill I have. I'll have to find a skill that passively increases my Intelligence sometime soon. Now, what did that other quest say I needed to do? Bringing up the quest in question I looked it over.

 **Leaving the nest**

 **Objective: Leave the forest and find civilization**

 **Bonus objective: Complete within 2 days.**

 **Reward: 200 exp**

 **Bonus reward: $20**

 **Failure: Loneliness, boredom, and eventual depression**

 **Time limit: none/ 1 day 11 hours 12 minutes 1 second**

So I just need to find my way out of this forest and find someone or something that constitutes 'civilization'. Pondering how to do so I looked around at the forest, before the sound of the brook caught my attention.

'I was always told to follow a river if I ever got lost in the woods, at least I think it was. Should've paid more attention in boy scouts.'

Figuring it was as good of an idea as anything else I started walking downstream. As I walked I idly began using 'Observe' on anything that caught my eye. But since there was nothing but trees, leaves, and sticks to look at I didn't use it very much. The small valley, which was more like a very wide and deep ditch now that I think about it, lead to a more open area. The hills flattening out to show more or less flat forest. I kept walking, just trying to enjoy the scenery instead of paying attention to things. I began to whistle, well tried to whistle. The mouth I remember and this one are shaped slightly different after all. But I kept trying since there was nothing else to do. I tried to whistle catchy tunes I remember from commercials and came close more than once. But I was interrupted by an unexpected notification.

 **A new skill has been created through a special action!**

 **Whistling (active) lvl 1**

 **Allows the user to whistle clearly. The higher the level the better the whistling.**

Okay… so that's a thing. Shrugging it off as some quirk of The Gamer ability I continued walking, whistling all the while. Eventually after leveling up whistling thrice I saw something shiny and gray sticking out of the ground. When I got closer I used 'Observe' on it.

 **Empty beer can**

Well that's helpful. Looking closer it wasn't of any brand I recognized on my world, which isn't saying much considering I've never bought beer before. Looking around I could see a few more beer cans and even the plastic from a 6-pack on the ground. Investigating the area I think I saw a dirt pathway through the brush, or it could have just been coincidence. Either way I followed it. The path turned out to actually be a path and lead to a baren clearing. The clearing itself was about 40 or 50 feet in diameter and appears to be someone's private campground. The ground was bare dirt, as if it was trodden upon so often plants could not grow. Using 'Observe' I found a few rusted tent stakes and a lot more beer cans which kind of proved my theory. Investigating further revealed another pathway that lead to a dirt road.

'This is it, I just need to follow this road and I'll eventually find civilization. But it's going to take a _looooooong_ time to walk there. I guess I could start jogging, maybe it'll raise my agility or vitality.'

I suddenly became self conscious about my appearance.

'What if I meet someone, What would they think?'

Looking down on myself I must admit that I don't look presentable. My brown t-shirt is stained with dirt and grime, my jeans are in a similar state but the dirt is more visible. My skin though isn't dirty but I can't tell why. Well whatever, it's not like looking like a prim and proper 9-year old was on the top of my priority list, though I should put my shoes back on before I meet someone.

With that thought over I began running down the dirt road barefooted, surprisingly not getting tired or winded in the least. So I upped my pace and ran faster than a light jog. After about a mile or two the dirt road exited the forested area and connected with hard blacktop road. I stopped at the edge of the road and deliberated which direction to run. To my left the road went straight until it turned a corner about a hundred and fifty yards away. To my right was about four hundred yards of open road before a slight curve in the road hid it from view. Wishing I had a coin to flip I just decided to go right. If it was a dead end I could always just turn around. So I set off in a run on the blacktop for about ten seconds before I had to stop. It wasn't that I was tired, it was that my bare feet couldn't handle the heat of sun-warmed blacktop. So I pulled my shoes out of my inventory before pausing mid-retrieval. The weight indicator box that I had ignored before caught my attention.

 **0.0lbs/118.8lbs**

From what I remember before my max capacity is only one-tenth of my maximum lifting strength. So does this mean that I can lift over 1,100 lbs? It probably does. That's something I need to keep an eye on, because if my strength is growing exponentially instead of linearly its something I could use. Is that the same with all of my physical stats? Probably. Briefly checking over my stats again I noticed that my agility, the stat that governs speed and reflexes along with manual dexterity, is only at 12 while the next highest physical stat is over two times higher. I'll need to rectify that. From what I've done before it seems that pushing my physical limits forces my body to quickly adapt to overcome the issue. So all I need to do is run like hell to train my agility, in theory. Finished with putting on my tennis shoes I stepped onto the road yet again. I began running, but instead of a leisurely pace I was sprinting like a mad man. By the time I came to the corner of the road I was panting slightly but more importantly a notification appeared.

 **Due to pushing your running speed to the limit your agility has increased by 1!**

I smiled wide and continued running faster, the road bending around corners and up a few hills with no end in sight. My feet were pounding away on the road, each step pushed me further and further ahead. My breathing was rapid and gasping, but I felt absolutely great.

'Is this what a runner's high is? If so I never want to stop!'

So I kept running. The road disappearing mile after mile, yet I never saw another car. What I did see were more notification screens telling me that my agility was skyrocketing and my vitality was catching up too. I ran for at least an hour or two, whenever my agility increased so did my speed. Eventually I was flying down the road faster than I ever thought possible. My feet were a blur and the world around me sped by as I kept running on the world's longest Runner's high ever. I felt happy. After a bit longer I saw something in the distance. A white and red building I recognized as a gas station. I slowed down to a reasonable walking speed and checked my stats. During my high I just dismissed the notifications as they appeared so it's hard to say exactly how much I gained. So to inspect I opened up my status screen and balked at what I saw.

 **Hunter Trent, Age 9  
Title: none  
Class: The Gamer  
Lvl. 2  
HP: 680/680  
HP regen/s: 11.56  
MP: 220/220  
MP regen/s: 0.33  
EXP: 100/200  
Strength: 41.8 (10% bonus)  
Vitality: 34.1 (10% bonus)  
Agility: 33 (10% bonus)  
Intelligence: 11  
Wisdom: 15.48 (29% bonus)  
Luck: 1  
Points: 10  
**

My agility had increased by over 20 points and my vitality by about 6 points. If it's this easy to train my physical stats with Self-Adaptation then it won't be long until one of my stats reaches over 100. I wonder what my stats would look like in a year, if I lived that long.

Dismissing the stat screen I walked the remaining distance to the gas station. Using 'Observe' as much as possible I found out a few interesting things. The gas station is often used, it only employs one person at a time, and only has one security camera on the outside. Interesting.

 **Observe's level has risen by 1!**

 **Observe now shows current action of target**

Neat, but not particularly useful at the moment. '

So how should I go about this. The quest said I had to find civilization, but I see the gas station and the quest isn't completed. Maybe I have to go inside and talk to someone? Or maybe just touch the building? Well whatever it is I want that $20'.

My internal musing over I brushed dirt off of myself as best as I could and walked up to the gas station. It was a small one with only two pumps and a small convenience store inside with nobody I could see from this angle. There was only one car outside, a beat up green pick up truck with rust eating through the paint on much of the car. The paint on the station was peeling slightly but the neon sign reading "Open" was still operational. I walked up to the outside pump station and was momentarily disoriented by how tall everything is now. It's going to take a long time for me to get used to this. I hesitantly walked to the glass door, worried about what will happen inside. Do I ask for help? Do I just pretend to be a normal kid? Do I cut my losses and run?

'No! I am not going to do nothing. It's just a gas station convenience store, how bad could it be?'

With that reassuring thought I pushed the glass door open and entered.

 **A quest has just been completed!**

 **Leaving the nest  
Objective: Leave the forest and find civilization. Completed.  
Bonus objective: Complete within 2 days. Completed.  
Reward: 200 exp  
Bonus reward: $20  
**

 **+200 exp**

 **+$20**

 **Your level has increased by 1!**


	4. Chapter 4

The door opening was accompanied by a soft bell ringing above me. Looking around I noticed nothing particularly interesting. A few rows of brightly colored snacks and an overabundance of camp related nick-nacks filled the ailes while a single row of glass refrigerator doors adorned the back wall. A quick check of the ceiling tiles shows that although there are two cameras in the store, only the one looking at the counter /door is operational. The other camera according to 'Observe' is disconnected, possibly so that it can be repaired later or whatever. The standard cash register with countertop was next to the door and a young man in his early twenties was behind the counter. He didn't look up from the paperback book he was reading, merely glancing at me before going back to his novel. On a whim I used 'Observe' on him.

 **John R. Burley, age 23**

 **Lvl 8**

 **Observe's level has increased by 1!**

 **The skill Observe now creates a short description of the target**

The name tag on his shirt read John B so that confirms Observe's accuracy. To avoid just staring at him I started walking between the isles pretending to look for snacks. While doing so I sneaked a peak and used 'Observe' on him again.

 **John R. Burley, age 23**

 **Lvl 8**

 **A young man who works as a gas station clerk. Bored.**

Well since that's not bloody useful I decided to check on my status and see what upgrades I got from leveling up. I discreetly walked around the shelves so I was blocked from view by John before opening the screen just in case he just didn't notice the small screens from observe but could actually see them. With a command the status screen appeared.

 **Hunter Trent, Age 9  
Title: none  
Class: The Gamer  
Lvl. 3  
HP: 1,020/1,020  
HP regen/s: 17.34  
MP: 330/330  
MP regen/s: 0.49  
EXP: 100/400  
Strength: 41.8 (10% bonus)  
Vitality: 34.1 (10% bonus)  
Agility: 33 (10% bonus)  
Intelligence: 11  
Wisdom: 15.48 (29% bonus)  
Luck: 1  
Points: 15  
Money: $20.00**

The increase in HP and MP was expected, but what is really interesting is how my money now appeared on my stat screen. Pondering this for a moment I came up with the theory that since I was dead broke before there was no need for my power to tell me that in my status screen. Or I just never noticed it before. Either way how do I access my money? I glanced over at the cashier again and he was still reading that book instead of staring at the meny floating in front of me. I can reasonably assume he either can't see the floating screens or he's just really into that book. Either way I decide to open my inventory and get my money, first closing my status screen. The window appeared and I reached in and tried to grab the $20 I got. I pulled my hand out and presto a slightly used $20 bill was in my hand and the indicator in my inventory read $0.00. I pushed it back into my inventory and the indicator returned to $20.00. But what about smaller denominations? I reached in and tried to pull out a $5 bill and out came a crisp $5 bill. The money indicator lowering accordingly.

'But won't it immediately out me as a cape if I pull money from thin air? Probably. Maybe I can move the screen behind my back or into my pockets so I can access my money that way.'

Deciding to test that for later I pulled out 2 $10 bills and put them in my pocket before browsing the convenience store for useful stuff with 'Observe'. Most of the snacks I saw restored some HP or MP, a few increased stamina recovery for a short while but nothing my regen couldn't out-do in a few seconds. The nick-nacks contained a lot of camping gear and last minute things that people would only remember after they got to the campground, like matches or spare flashlight batteries. All of it overpriced, as typical of a convenience store. I didn't find anything actually useful until I started looking at the maps and newspapers. The paper was the Washington Post and on the front page was a story about a rogue cape with Stranger powers tricking millionaires into donating ridiculous amounts of money to charity. The next few pages detailing containment efforts in Australia after the Simurge hit Canberra 7 days ago. What really drew me was the date. Tuesday March 1st, 2011. From what I remember canon started on April 8th of this year, which is the night that Taylor first goes out in costume, misunderstands what someone was saying, and attacks Lung. Its also about 2 and a half months before Leviathan visits Brockton Bay because of the gang war's violence attracting it or something like that.

So I have about a month before canon begins, which allows me to change some things and time to prepare. Taylor has her powers now and is building her costume in secret. I may or may not try to help her. On one hand as she is right now she'll eventually save every earth on all parallel timelines from an omnicidal godling while turning insane in the process. On the other hand my influence and actions in the future may make that entire series of events unneeded. Whatever, when I end up in Brockton Bay I'll, I dunno, give her some life advice that'll hopefully stop her from trying to wrestle Lung. At the very least delay or speed up her first showing as a cape to any day that's not the 8th. But if I do that then the Undersiders will probably get roasted by Lung. Eh, they likely won't die. They'll probably get saved by coil's mercenaries, the Protectorate, or they'll actually die and it'll be tangentially my fault. Ignoring that thought for now I looked at the road maps available and came to a startling discovery. I'm currently in Eastern Massachusetts just outside of the October Mountain State Forest. After a quick search through the atlas I find where Brockton Bay is. It's actually North of Warwick in Rhode Island, located in the correct geographical area from what I can see. If I ended up going left at the end of the dirt road I would have run into the camp grounds directory, saving me about five miles of running. Fucking 1 luck man. Deciding to buy the atlas along with a few candy bars and a gallon of water to help me on the road I approach the counter with my belongings. John quickly rings me up without a word. The damage came up to $14.67 and I hand him the money I had in my pockets. He gets my change and puts all of my stuff into two flimsy plastic bags before handing everything to me.

"Have a good day" John says, probably out of habit.

"You too" I reply also out of habit. Damn I am never going to get used to my younger voice. It's higher pitched than my old normal voice and I just know it's going to start cracking when I go through puberty again. Ugh, that nightmare is going to have to wait until I survive that long.

As I leave the gas station I notice my reflection in the glass. I actually do look like my 9 year old self. Short black hair covered my head and my green eyes stared back at me. My face is a little chubby, just enough to have dimples when I smile. Young me was pretty cute to be honest, I match up with what I kind of remember from my elementary school yearbook photos. Should I be happy that I'm a kid again or mad that the beard I was working on is gone forever. With that thought occupying my attention I continue walking south on the road. When I'm sure nobody can see me I empty both plastic bags into my inventory along with the change in my pocket. After a moment the two plastic bags follow because I don't want to litter. Damn my parents for instilling good morals into me! I pulled out the Atlas and began to plot my course for Brockton Bay. I'll follow the back road until I hit I-90 East and follow it for about 90+ miles. Then I'll follow the 148 south for about thirty or so miles and I should end up on the outskirts of Brockton Bay. Once I get there I'll decide what to do. I know BB is a bad place, but most of my canon knowledge is useful only there. Plus I think I can contact Cauldron through Coil and warn sell info about scion and the endbringers to them, somehow. I could return to the forest and train until all my Bending skills are higher, but I have a feeling something bad will happen if I keep delaying. I know, I know, it would be better for me to continue practicing my bending in the forest, but I know I'll help more people if I get started sooner. But I can't just sprint full force all the way there. I'll have to follow the highway, walking where I can and sprinting when nobody would see me.

I look up and notice that the sun is lowering in the sky. It must be evening about now. Damn. I should have gotten a watch. Maybe I could travel the highway during dark at full sprint because less people would see me, my Mysterious Stranger perk would help to mostly hide me from any cameras i'd pass. During the day I could just walk or hide and train up my skills. My plan somewhat made I began walking to the highway. A notification appeared after I took only a few steps.

 **A new quest has been created!**

 **Highway to Hell**

 **Objective: Reach Brockton Bay**

 **Bonus Objective: Avoid anyone witnessing your powers on the way**

 **Reward: $100**

 **Bonus reward: 150 EXP**

 **Yes/No**

Poking 'Yes' with my finger the quest disappeared, leaving me alone on the side of the road. For some reason I started to smile. It may have been that I was about to undertake my first and not likely only 100+ mile marathon or it may be that I knew I could do it. It could also be that all the hidden aches and pains that a normal body would feel after a 5 mile sprint are completely absent. Whatever the case I started walking with a spring in my step and a whistled tune.

 **1 hour later**

I walked/ran for a while until I hit Lenoxdale. Then I followed south-east on East Street until I found the I-90 highway. I didn't get to see much of Lenoxdale, just a residential neighborhood. Not many people as well. The only person who even saw me on my trip through was a woman pushing a stroller. All she did was smile and wave, moving on with her day. I returned the gesture. When I got to the highway I realized it would be a lot easier to move during the day than I thought. I just needed to cut through the woods surrounding the highway and nobody would see me. If they did then all they would see would be a blurred flash of some kid playing in the woods as they sped by at at least 60+ mph in their cars. Though running full speed through the woods wasn't practical due to all the obstacles, not to mention the garbage people throw out of their cars. Doesn't mean I didn't try. My fastly fading scar for when I tripped and got a nasty cut off of a broken beer bottle is proof of that. What I didn't account for was how _**boring**_ it was. Sure, it was kind of neat for the first fifteen minutes but after a while of jogging through the woods it just got stale. I know, I can stare at fire all night but get bored of running through trash and trees. I really wish I bought something more entertaining than a road Atlas. Whistling got boring after the first half hour into my trip, even though it leveled up twice in the process.

I looked up at the sky, the sun setting ,and the cars flying by on the highway turned on their headlights. I now realized a flaw in my plan to travel unnoticed at night. I don't have night vision!

'Why did I overlook that. Ugh. Maybe I can just run on the freeway at night? It should be lit by street lamps and maybe I can hitch a ride if i'm lucky.'

Since the sun is about to set and I'm a bit annoyed at walking I decide to take a break. So I keep walking until I find a nice spot to sit down, which happens to be a surprisingly well-kept grassy field next to the highway. It was mowed a few days ago as far as I can tell, which works great for me. I walked to the middle of it and sat on the grass. Making sure I didn't see anyone walking by I moved the inventory behind my back and grabbed a candy bar along with the gallon of water out of it. Even if I didn't need to eat or drink didn't mean I don't still want to. So I enjoyed the candybar, a new brand special to earth Bet according to Observe, and occasionally took sips of water. The expected hp gained numbers didn't appear, which is not surprising since i'm not injured at all. The sunset was nice, I had an okay view of it from start to finish. The sky changing from a light orange to a dark orange with purple and dark blue mixed here and there. The weird twilight after the sun actually set beyond the horizon but daylight was still around. The shadows of the trees and concrete walls of the highway stretched further and further away from the setting sun before night descended upon the land. I finished off the last of the candy bars and about a third of the gallon of water by this point. I decided that this was as good as time as any to start walking the highway. But before then I ducked behind the concrete divider on the edge of the highway and used Phase Shift on the remaining water in the gallon. Doing so took over a third of my MP but I didn't mind, having something that I can use as a distraction if the need arises would be worth it. I put the frozen gallon in my inventory and vaulted over the divider to the right-most lane of the highway. There was about a 3 foot wide bike lane on my side of the road that I could use to run in. The light levels have descended to the point that it was kind of difficult to see fine details in the blacktop of the road. The traffic level was minimal, a car driving by about every six seconds followed by a gust of wind.

I started running. Not sprinting, but a good jog to get me started. I kept a good pace for about ten minutes with cars whizzing by every so often with their headlights lighting up the road for a moment before returning to dark. The wind brushing past my back as I passed underneath the occasional street light. After what must have been the hundredth car to pass me I got an idea. Calling upon my Airbending I tried to use the motion of my swinging arms to manipulate the air. What I wanted wasn't very complicated so it was easy to bend the wind to my needs with such simple movements. After a moment of testing I _pushed_ and stumbled as wind slammed into my back, forcing me forward somewhat while the edge of my shirt danced in the breeze. I regained my composure and tried again. The expected push didn't make me stumble like before and I noticed that It actually helped move me forward somewhat. But getting intermittently shoved while running isn't going to do me any good, I need constant acceleration. So it took me about fifteen minutes of trying to hone down my wind assisted running technique. Along the way I only almost shoved myself into traffic seven times, but it was all worth it. I found out that a combination of an airbending running style in my mental archive and the waving motions of a jogger's arms could allow me to manipulate the air around me in two ways. The first was to reduce air drag to basically none and the second would be to apply constant force to my body to propel me forward. As soon as I got the hang of it a notification screen appeared.

 **A new skill has been created through a special action!**

 **Wind Sprint (active) lvl 1**

 **An airbending technique that reduces air resistance and allows the user to move much more rapidly than usual**

 **%10 increase in movement speed while active**

 **%1 decrease in cost of Wind Sprint**

 **Removes air resistance while active**

 **Beginner Airbending's level has increased by 1!**

I celebrated my accomplishment by sprinting to my top speed and activating it. The rush of running at my limit was only surpassed by the feeling of weightlessness that moving at such high speeds provides me. Sure, someone might get suspicious if they saw me, but I didn't give a shit at the time. I mean really, who is going to notice a 9-year old moving faster than normal after dark on some random stretch of highway in Massachusetts? With my thoughts relaxed I returned to the task of long distance sprinting. A glance at my mana showed me that I was nearly all the way out after just a minute of running. Or it could have been two or three minutes. Hard to tell without a watch. I really need to get a stopwatch eventually so I can be more analytical about how my abilities work. Maybe if-

'OH FUCK'

My train of thought flew off the rails as I jumped to the side to avoid a speeding truck. The driver honked at me and I flipped him the bird before getting back on track. Must have gotten lost in thought and drifted to the side. At this speed I should pass through Chicopee before dawn and make my turn in Worcester by morning. Brockton Bay is only about two dozen or so miles from there, so I should be able to eat at a brockton bay restaurant by lunchtime with my shiny new $100 bill. With that thought I speed off into the night, occasionally using Wind Sprint to boost my speed. By the time I hit the city limits Chicopee I gained five levels in wind sprint, two in airbending, and two points in dexterity.

Chicopee, to be honest, wasn't that interesting of a place. Sure it has its fancy buildings and interesting places, but when you're jogging through the middle of it all in the dead of night it's not that memorable. I think I saw a couple fast food chains, turns out the golden arches don't care if superheroes exist. I got a few weird looks from the people crazy enough to be up at two in the morning, but I would double-take too if I saw a child jogging past midnight with no parents around. Getting hit by a sudden bout of homesickness I slowed down to a walk on a bridge, then stopped and looked out over the river. My thoughts whirred with memories of family and dear friends I wouldn't be able to see again, at least for another 10 years, minus the day and a half i've been here. I managed to shake myself out of it after a few minutes of moping, dwelling on the negative only leads to sadness. Look on the bright side, I have powers without any of the accompanying desire for conflict, with immunity to masters, thinkers, and trumps. Maybe stranger class too, depending on the kind. It could be a lot worse. I could have ended up with some stupid ability like "Feather manipulation" and landed in the middle of a Russian forest during the peak of winter. The thought brought a small smile to my face despite my dour mood.

"I wonder what i'll do once I get to Brockton Bay?" I asked myself aloud.

I could try and go rogue, but I honestly hate the idea of sleeping in abandoned buildings until I get established, always looking over my shoulder so a junkie doesn't shank me for cash or the ABB tries to kidnap me for a kiddy diddling ring. Joining a gang is right out, I'm not that kind of person. Coil? Hell to the No. Faultline mercenary group? Definitely not. The Wards?... probably my best option to be honest. I just need to be very careful in how I go about it. Revealing all my abilities to them while avoiding Coil's moles getting that same info could be a little difficult but well worth a try. The PRT would probably be willing to bend a little with the possibility to get a cape like me, so it is possible. A grab bag with a plethora of abilities that all get stronger with training. I'm kind of like Dauntless to be honest, maybe even better since my physical abilities grow so fast and my regeneration.

If I do get into the wards that would be the best place for me to train and do some good. My Observe ability will let me subtly reveal Shadow Stalker's civilian identity's crimes, which will hopefully send her to juvie. With her in juvie Taylor will probably, hopefully, not go out March 8th and attack Lung because one of her bullies disappeared. With any luck, Luck stat not included, she'll end up joining the Wards on her own. If not, well I'll cross that bridge when I get there. Speaking of that, I better cross this bridge and get going. I pushed off of the railing and picked up my speed, using Wind Sprint since I haven't seen any cameras nearby, I sped off into the night.

 **Hours later**

I ended up getting through the town without issue. On the highway there there was basically nobody around so I could use Wind Sprint pretty much whenever I wanted, which was whenever my MP allowed me to. By the time dawn's first rays lit up the sky I was in the city limits of… bah who cares. I'll be out of here before anything happens. I also gained eight levels in Wind Sprint, six more points in agility, four levels in airbending, and two points in vitality. I might have been able to gain more vitality but I had to slow to a jog for good few miles when the morning rush started. I can't believe how many times I nearly got run over this morning because some idiot was texting while driving or they were doing something else stupid. 3 times in about 1 hour is way too many times.

Eventually I finally got to my turn and started to run south on 148. From what I remember it should only be about 30 miles at most before I hit Brockton Bay. When I get there… I guess i'll find something to do. Training my bending abilities to at least level 50 each along with the styles should be my goal. I don't know if the 50% mana reduction stacks to %100, or if they only stack when I am both using that martial art and the bending style. Or if they both halve the mana used and I end up using 75% less mana overall. Well either way I kind of want to practice my stuff in private before I go to the PRT, make sure I'm seen as valuable so they'll listen to me and keep the finer aspects of my abilities under wraps. Like the fact that I can instantly unmask any cape I lay my eyes upon along with a short biography of that person. Wouldn't want Coil finding out about that and have a timeline-splitting cape who can hire mercenaries with tinker tech sniper rifles and infinite retries trying to kill me. That would suck on so many levels. Welp, can't do much by worrying about it now. I just have to run the last 29 or so miles and then I can find a place to train. My top places to look would be the boat graveyard, preferably an offshore vessel partially sunk with a large air pocket inside that would allow me to train virtually undetectable. If not then maybe a beached vessel or a sunken one after trying to patch the holes with earthbending and filling it with oxygen with airbending and waterbending. If none of those then I'll just find an abandoned warehouse and practice my less obvious parahuman skills. Hopefully any of those will work. Now for the running part.

I had just passed under an overpass when the most god-awful metal screech caused me to trip on my own two feet and fall on my face, sliding a meter or two on the pavement.

 **-20 hp**

The pain faded almost immediately, allowing me to quickly come to a standing position and turn to face where the noise came from, which turned out to be the overpass. Another scream of metal was immediately followed by a sharp creaking _**SNAP**_ and a reinforced black car door of some kind flew off the side of the overpass towards me. Not knowing what to do, I just sort of held my arms up in an X shape and looked away, hoping that it didn't hit me. My prayers were answered when the door landed a few feet behind me and I was completely unharmed, if shaken. If I hadn't tripped by accident I'd have been crushed by that thing. Two screens appeared before me right before the sound of gunshots, screaming, burning fire, military commands, shrieking metal, and a cacophony of chaotic sounds came from the overpass above me. I could see two valkyrie-style armored woman, one with a spear and one with a sword and shield, both at least thirty feet high and attacking something I couldn't see from my steep angle. Two screens decided that it would be a perfect time to appear.

 **You dodged a deadly projectile with a lucky accident. Your luck has increased by 1!**

 **A new quest has been created!**

 **Breaking out wolfy**

 **Empire capes have just attacked hookwolf's birdcage transport and are attempting to set him free. Stop them!**

 **Objective: Prevent the empire capes from freeing hookwolf.**

 **Bonus objective: Incapacitate 1 or more Empire capes**

 **Reward: 20,000 exp**

 **Bonus Reward:5,000 exp plus 3,000 per extra cape incapacitation.**

 **Failure: Death, critical injury and/or extreme pain**

 **Yes/No**

What the fuck.


	5. Chapter 5

Now is not the time for reading. I skimmed over it briefly, something about not freeing hookwolf and big EXP rewards. I pressed Yes and closed the screen without another glance, every quest I've taken so far has been pretty rewarding so this should be no different. I guess I need to intervene... somehow. Looking back at what appear to be Fenja and Menja I use Observe on the one with the spear and then the one with the sword and shield.

 **Nessa Biermann, Menja, age 25**

 **Lvl 52**

 **An empire cape who has a powerful breaker ability. Incoming attacks shrink in proportion to her size. Currently stabbing at something or someone.**

 **Jessica Biermann, Fenja, age 25**

 **Lvl 53**

 **An empire cape who has a powerful breaker ability. Incoming attacks shrink in proportion to her size. Currently blocking an attack.**

 **Observe's level has increased by 1!**

 **Observe now shows a creature's current HP.**

Okay. Neither of those capes I could or want to fight. From what I remember from canon the two of them managed to hold off freaking _Leviathan_ , if temporarily. As I watched a solid blast of sound impacted Fenja's shield and her sister's spear came down to attack a target I couldn't see from my angle. I guess that Triumph, I think that's the guy who can shout someone to death, and I think Armsmaster were already on the scene when the Empire's capes came along. Armsmaster was probably doing something important, can't really tell how he's doing since all I saw of him was a wildly swinging blue halberd. The battle continued as I walked backwards away from the overpass, both to get a better look and to get farther away from a cape fight. I glanced to my right at the sound of someone rear-ending the person in front of them on the other side of the highway. The first car lurched forward and ended up longways across two lanes. The second ended up blocking the third lane. Both cars airbags deployed from what I could see so best of luck to them. I kept growing the distance between me and the overpass since I couldn't really help with my current abilities, I was level 3 for pete's sake and I barely trained up my skills at all! Also I really wanted to not fail that bonus objective of "Avoid anyone witnessing your powers". I needed to figure out a way to assist the heroes without showing off my powers to every bystander in view. Firebending and earthbending are too obvious. Waterbending could work, I have that gallon of ice in my inventory that could be thrown, but someone could easily see that. I've never tried airbending at range but it would at least be almost entirely invisible. I still came up at a blank on how to assist, at least until I saw someone in a white tiger mask get picked up by Menja and lightly tossed into the air. Instead of plummeting they started to glide and rain down some sort of crescent shaped attack onto an unseen target. I used Observe and was surprised at what I read.

 **Albert Smith, Stormtiger, age 28**

 **Lvl 40**

 **HP 5811/6000**

 **An empire cape who has aerokinetic abilities. These provide him with enhanced senses, ranged attacks, ranged defenses, limited flight capability, and close quarters combat abilities. Currently gliding**

Oh, so he was using condensed air blades to attack whoever he was attacking. I'll have to try that later. Well this seems like something I can help with without running into the fight and hopefully without anyone noticing. I waited for just the right moment to put to motion my cunning sneak attack. That moment happened to be right after he unleashed another air slash attack so his attention was elsewhere.I struck, moving my arms through a rapid Baguazhang movement I forced the air around Stormtiger to abruptly blast downward. My mana bar nearly depleted itself instantly, much more than I anticipated, but the effect was immediate and quite surprising. I just meant to make him fall onto the overpass, maybe break a leg or have him stumble so one of the heroes could take him out. Instead his own wind power pushed him backwards off of the overpass before he plummeted at high speeds straight into the window of a car over fifty feet down. I think I heard him yell in surprise before his face went through the windshield. The driver of said car was luckily already out of the vehicle with his phone out, probably recording the battle since he was blocked by the car accident ahead of him. I was suitably stunned for a moment, both that my attack worked and that it worked too well. I'm really not a violent person in general, this was just supposed to distract him. Seriously, I just meant to knock him down to the overpass, not kill him! Sure he may have been a nazi but that doesn't mean I had to kill the guy. Hopefully he's alive, I know Othala would patch him up if he doesn't die.

I glanced back up to the battle on the overpass and met the eyes of one of the twin giantesses, the one with the spear. Thoughts and questions flew through my mind. Did she see me? Did she connect what happened to Stormtiger to what I did? Logically I knew that it was unlikely for her to connect the dots, I was physically a 9 year old kid after all. But I was standing near a cape fight, still in the same pose as when I attacked Stormtiger. Menja apparently made her mind up as to what to do and jumped off of the overpass towards me. I decided that a tactical retreat was in order, so I whipped around and ran at top speed for my life with Wind Sprint active.

I can honestly say that I was kind of scared, especially once I looked at my mana bar to see it about a fifth of the way full and draining quickly. It was just my luck that the most dangerous parahuman in the battle just happened to be looking my way.

'I swear if I survive this I'm fixing that damn luck stat.'

The sound of cracking road and stomping confirmed that menja was giving chase. I managed to get a good few hundred yards before my mana was drained and the footsteps got a little close for my liking. Glancing back I saw a way too large spear head slashing towards me from the side. I threw myself to the right, the surprise of the attack causing me to stumble and fall into a roll. A gale of wind followed the spear's path over my prone body. Already I was rolling into a crouched position, only to jump to the left to dodge as a boot as big as I was crushed the spot I was in seconds ago. I jumped back to dodge another spear thrust that lodged the gargantuan spearhead at least three feet into the blacktop.

'Holy shit, is she trying to _kill_ me?!'

Apparently she was, as she pulled the spear out of the ground with an effortless tug another colossal kick was sent my too fast for me to dodge. The unyielding metal of the boot smashed into my legs. I could feel something give within both of my legs along with a white hot agony shooting through my body before I was sent flying.

 **-450 HP**

 **-450 HP**

 **-108 HP**

My brief flight lesson ended when I tumbled head over ass into a grassy ditch. Each time my legs hit dirt a lance of pain would scream up my legs. I rolled for a few more feet before my body came to rest face-up on the grass. I tried to breath and ended up choking on something. Shit, I may have a broken rib. I looked upwards, spitting out a large wad of blood that landed on my chest. I could see Menja towering above the highway, looking at my downed form with spear in hand. She was armored head to toe in Valkyrie style armor, stylised wings visible on most of her form. It was kind of beautiful, or that could be the shock speaking. Am I in shock? Another inhale of breath was followed by me painfully choking on something before I practically vomited out a gush of blood. She winced, I'm guessing she thought I was a brute for some reason or that I would be able to keep dodging. Whatever the case an explosion along with accompanying gunfire brought her attention back to the breakout attempt. So without a glance to my prone body she left me there in the ditch, her titanic footfalls becoming fainter.

I'm actually grateful she thought I was going to bleed out because now I can look at the damage. I tried to fight back another pained cough before I ended up spitting up more blood. I carefully lifted my head up to look at my legs and winced at the sight. Both were bent at unnatural angles, one had my shin bent backwards to the point that my foot resting on my knee and the other shin was bent at a 150 degree angle to the side. Most of the lower leggings of the pants were soaking a deep red with blood. My chest felt like hell and I think I might have a broken rib. My shirt has large ugly splotches of crimson on it from my bloody vomit and spit. All in all I was not looking pretty. A check on my HP bar showed that I was down to about 10% of my total HP, but it was quickly filling back up. A shift in my legs caused a pained whimper to leave my mouth along with more bloody spit. My bones, I could feel them realigning and shifting back into place within me. I couldn't feel that much pain to be honest, it's probably adrenaline or shock that's doing that. Either way I'd like whatever is doing it to keep doing it until I recover. I distracted myself by staring intently at my HP bar and listening to the somewhat distant sounds of battle so I would stop looking at my broken legs. Once my HP was about halfway full an eternity later my bones stopped moving around and my flesh started to knit itself together. My bloody coughs also stopped and the sharp taste of copper left my mouth. I dared not to move, just laying in the grass watching my HP quickly refill itself. After what I had to guess a minute passed since my injury my HP was mostly full again and I checked myself. My legs were bent at a normal angle, my chest did not feel like it was full of broken glass, and I could breathe clearly without any bloody coughing. The blood stains on my shirt and pants were fading quickly along with the copious amounts of vomited blood, which was a relief. But, my pants have two wide holes in them around shin area and my clothes are a bit more torn than they were before. I still felt bruised on my chest and my legs were sore. The memory of my injury still fresh in my mind I climbed out of the ditch and started running away from the battle and to brockton bay as fast as my legs could carry me. I looked back but all I could make out from this distance was one of the twins peeling the top of a security truck off like a sardine can while other figures continued to battle it out. I used Wind Sprint at that moment just so I could get away as fast as possible. My speed surprising me as I ran much faster than any of the cars around me while it was active. I figured that nobody would remember much of a speeding blur and I also wanted to get as far away as I could possibly get from the fight as fast as possible.

A few minutes into my adrenaline fueled escape a notification screen appeared in front of me which almost made me trip. Almost.

 **Quest Failed!**

 **Breaking out Wolfy**

 **Objective: Prevent the empire capes from freeing Hookwolf. Failed**

 **Bonus objective: Incapacitate 1 or more empire capes. Completed.**

 **Reward: none**

 **Bonus Reward: 5,000 EXP**

The notification was accompanied by a slew of other notification screens.

 **+2,000 EXP**

 **+5,000 EXP**

 **Your level has increased by 1!**

 **Your level has increased by 1!**

 **Your level has increased by 1!**

 **Your level has increased by 1!**

 **Your agility has increased by 1!**

 **Your agility has increased by 1!**

 **Your agility has increased by 1!**

 **Physical Resistance's level has increased by 1!**

 **Physical Resistance's level has increased by 1!**

 **Physical Resistance's level has increased by 1!**

 **Basic Baguazhang's level has increased by 1!**

 **Beginner Airbending's level has increased by 1!**

 **Wind Sprint's level has increased by 1!**

What. I slowed down to a standstill as a sudden inexplicable wave of exhaustion fell upon me. It's like I was missing something, almost like I was hollow inside, like I just finished running a marathon without any water. It's kind of unsettling to be honest. I brought up the quest I dismissed earlier and checked the rewards, struggling with every movement from that sudden bout of lethargy.

'FIVE THOUSAND EXP for taking down a cape!? What? That's insane! I'm sure I got 2,000 for disabling/killing stormtiger but I still got the exp for the bonus objective if I still failed the mission and got the shit kicked out of me, literally. Whatever, I ain't complaining about a little extra help. Though that 20,000 EXP reward would have been pretty awesome.

It's kind of weird how I gained three points of agility in such a short time. And my skills gained a level even though I barely used them.

'Does being in life threatening situation speed up self-adaptation's ability and my skill growth? Well the only way to find out is to go and fight another forty foot tall woman, which is something I'm not going to do. Ever.'

Dismissing the notifications I pulled up my status screen.

 **Hunter Trent, Age 9  
Title: none  
Class: The Gamer  
Lvl. 7  
HP: 1,877/2,870  
HP regen/s: 50.2  
MP: 21.8/770  
MP regen/s: 1.15  
EXP: 2,750/3,000  
Strength: 41.8 (10% bonus)  
Vitality: 35.2 (10% bonus)  
Agility:45.5 (11% bonus)  
Intelligence: 11  
Wisdom: 15.48 (29% bonus)  
Luck:2  
Points: 35  
Money: $5.32**

I saw the number for my HP rapidly increase as my regeneration got to work. I guess my exhaustion/hollow feeling was my body's way of telling me my max HP nearly tripled without any increase in my current hp. Within a bout 20 seconds my HP was filled and I was relieved of my sudden lethargy. My MP is a lot higher, but just about empty since I had been using Wind Sprint to escape. But what I kind of disliked is how little my MP is compared to my HP. How do I fix that? From looking at my stats, level, and Intelligence score it seems that my Max MP is equal to 10 x level x Intelligence. Same equation for Vitality. I'd have to get a calculator to figure out what stat is used for the regen for each one. Whatever the case I was sorely tempted to use my 35 stat points all in intelligence right now, but I stopped myself. Having a intelligence score of 46 would bother me immensely every time I saw it and it was a impulsive decision. Sure it might help me immensely with my bending abilities, but I need to research this some more. I'd rather not have over 3,000 max MP but it only regens at a rate of 2 per second. I decided to wait until I raise my intelligence a bit through training, find out how MP/HP regen/s is calculated, and I figure out if I can train Luck before dumping my points into any of my stats.

I continued my run at a superhuman rate, speeding past moving cars whenever I used Wind Sprint. I started going over what I did in the battle as I ran, starting with my takedown of Stormtiger.

'I could have done that better. I forgot he had his aerokinesis pushing him directions already. I also didn't have much of any ranged combat abilities outside my barely trained bending abilities. My physical strength was pretty much useless there. My bending abilities ate up way too much mana to be sustainable and I was left defenseless outside of dodging attacks while my mana slowly regenerated. The only reason I survived is because Menja thought I would bleed out, which allowed me to heal and escape.'

I stopped running as a thought hit me.

'Oh god. I almost died. Not even a full two days into this thing and I almost got killed. I was literally a solid punch away from kicking the bucket.'

The thought should have had me panicking, breathing heavily, or even plain crying in fear. But I didn't. The feelings and emotions were there, just muted. I gave a mental 'Thank You' to Gamer's Mind as I sorted through these feelings. I just kept walking, thinking of my part in the battle over and over again in my mind.

'What do I need to work on? Well some way of increasing my luck would be nice but not a top priority. I need to boost all my bending skills for that mana reduction, I need to increase my damage resistance, I need to raise my physical stats to the very limit, I need ranged attack options, and I need to figure out what my stats actually do.'

With these thoughts buzzing in my head I kept walking.

In about half an hour I passed the city limits of Brockton Bay and the quest popped up.

 **Highway to Hell  
Objective: Reach Brockton Bay. Completed.  
Bonus Objective: Avoid anyone witnessing your powers on the way. Failed.  
Reward: $100  
Bonus reward: none**

 **+$100**

I smiled a little upon receiving the notification and the hundred dollars, a paltry compensation for the extraordinary hike. I continued my walk, trying to increase my vitality just a bit more if I could. Alas it was not meant to be as before I could do any more the first crosswalk appeared and I was forced to stop and rest. The light turned green after a minute and I walked across to continue my journey into Brockton Bay.

The area of the city I was walking through seemed to be a commercial district I was guessing. Restaurants and stores of whatever purpose filled the blocks and busy people walked by, not even giving me a second glance as they went along with their errands. Deciding that such an opportunity to get much needed supplies couldn't be passed up I went on a little shopping trip of my own. First I entered a thrift store because my clothes were going to eventually get unwearable and I would like to have a second or third set of back-up clothes. I browsed the racks of clothing and shelves of miscellaneous items. After a while of figuring out my size and what types of clothing were available I ended up with another set of clothes, a generic brand digital wristwatch, and a old calculator with the little solar panel thing on it. The outfit was just a pair of old black sweatpants, a white T-shirt, and a fresh pair of underwear from a brand I never heard of before. After some more consideration I also bought a pair of blue swim trunks with white floral patterns since I planned to explore the boat graveyard in the future and would probably take a swim. I passed on socks and shoes since I have a slight suspicion I may end up going barefoot in the future due to the convenience and how well it meshed with my powers. I walked to the register where a young woman, in a T-shirt with the store's name on it, greeted me with a simple "hey". She was weird looking. Her face had way too much eye shadow and her blatantly fake eyelashes were covered in glitter, but the rest of her makeup was not as badly done, though I would have picked a color other than pink for her lipstick. I used observe on her before putting my purchases on the counter.

 **Lauren F Flores, age 21**

 **Lvl 6**

 **HP: 480/480**

 **Lauren works at a thrift store and generally despises her coworkers. Always waiting for her next smoke break. Currently slightly confused.**

"Aren't you a little young to be buying clothes for yourself?" Lauren asked. One hand rested on her hip while the other rested by the register. I noticed her teeth were an ugly off-yellow color.

I responded "Aren't you a little young to be smoking a pack a day?" annoyed both that she asked and that I was _physically_ a little too young to be shopping alone. Her eyes widened a bit before a large frown showed itself on her face. She began ringing up my items and I heard the words "little shit" muttered alongside some other profanity before she turned back to me.

"That's $12.98 kid."

I handed her a twenty I snuck into my pocket earlier. She gave me my stuff in a large plastic bag before telling me to get out of the store. I got out with my bag and pulled out the watch. I'm going to have to adjust the time first because I know it isn't 8pm yet. I wrap the straps around my wrist and adjust it so it won't fall off. After a few minutes of walking I manage to find an alleyway where I can store my stuff in my inventory without anyone watching. There was a homeless man there but I'm pretty sure he's high as a kite since he was mumbling to himself and giggling a lot. Eh, he probably won't remember seeing this. I pulled open the inventory and shoved the whole bag in. Once it was done the inventory had five new boxes filled, one for every article of clothing plus the calculatory, and the plastic bag count increased by one. My money also increased but I was lower than when I begun obviously. I also took out the calculator and put it in another pocket. I'll figure out how my stats affect regeneration later. But right now I need to get some more stuff.

After twenty minutes I had found and purchased everything I needed. A waterproof flashlight, a good LED lantern, old hand radio, batteries for all three, burner phone, pillow, blanket, canned food with peel tabs, spoon, fork, paper towels, and a lot of sanitary wipes. All in all it cost me $85.66 for my stuff, it would have cost more but I managed to get find the radio on sale for 25% off. All of it went into my inventory at the latest convenience, filling out most of the slots but not nearly reaching my carrying capacity. I tried to find a good knife but nobody in their right mind would sell a pocket knife to a 9 year old. On the other hand I managed to adjust my watch to read the right time. Finished with my shopping trip I walked around some more and deliberated where to go from here.

'I could try and go straight from here to the boat graveyard, but I don't know where that is. I should probably go to the library. They'll have maps there and I should be able to find out more info about the gangs and PRT/Protectorate from there. No way am I going to try and reason with them without doing my research first.'

With that decided I opened up my inventory and pull out $5 in one dollar bills so I could buy a bus ticket. I asked a random person walking around where the nearest bus station is. The helpful tattooed bald man pointed me in the right direction and informed me that a one-way fare was $2 while a day pass was $4. I found the bus station, which was a bench with a sign reading "BUS" hanging over it. Asking someone there I heard that the bus would be here in about ten minutes. So I waited. While waiting I pulled out my calculator and my status screen to try and figure out what stat affects my regen. The fact that not a single passerby seemed to notice the screen confirmed my suspicions. A few calculations and more than a few trial and errors later I'm pretty sure I figured it out. Vitality determines my HP with level x 10 x vitality. It also determines regen rate by what I can determine (%0.05 of max hp x vitality) per second. My Mana regen surprised me. Either I have a hidden stat somewhere or my mana regen is actually (%0.01 of max MP x Wisdom) per second. Why it is ⅕ the speed of my hp regen I can only assume is due to Self-Adaptation not applying to my mana system.

Now this had me thinking of what to do with my if I put all 35 points into intelligence right now my max MP would increase to 3,220 and my mana regen would increase to 4.83/s. But if I instead only put 29 points into intelligence and the rest into wisdom to bring it to 23.22, after bonuses, my max mana would be 2,800 and my mana regen would be 6.44/s. For the next few minutes I pondered this heavily while doing many many calculations on the bargain bucket calculator. Sadly I could not plot functions nor create a effect over levels graph.. What I did find kind of funny is that with the first option it would take 666.666667 seconds to refill entirely, sign of the devil and all that, while the second option I could refill my mana in only 434.78 seconds. Mana regen is probably more important since it will allow me to recover faster and having mana over 2,000 would be a gigantic improvement over what I had now. I continued to do more calculations, trying to find the perfect match between regen and capacity. After a while I decided that I really needed a piece of paper and pencil for this or a computer program, especially when I remembered that my wisdom bonus would increase as I leveled up Basic Tai Chi and Meditation. Putting my calculator away I look up and find the elderly black man sitting nearby giving me a weird look. I pretend not to notice, gotta keep up the impression of a 9 year-old who is just thinking of something for school or whatever.

A few minutes later the bus pulls up and the few people at the bus stop start boarding. I splurge and get a day pass since I plan to use the bus at least twice today. Apparently it's not that abnormal for kids in this town to ride a bus alone at this time of day. This leaves me with $2.68 left to my name. I find a seat next to the window and sit down. Looking around I notice a bus route pamphlet and took a look. It appears that it would take about 40 minutes to get near enough the Docks for me to walk the rest of the way to the boat graveyard or it would just take 15 minutes to get to a library. I decided a library would be a nice stop, I had some ideas and theories to test there. Looking at my watch I notice it is only 11:23am. That would leave me with well enough time to do stuff at the library before nightfall. It will either be a great time for me or I'll leave early out of boredom, depending on whether I can get access to a computer or my theories work. If I do I'll be able to better research all the known parahumans within a hundred miles of here and I should have access to online graphing programs so I can decide how to spend my stat points for MP. I've decided that hoarding the stat points for some indeterminate date is moronic since all my physical stats are extremely easy to train and my current survival depends on how easily I can use my abilities. Since my mental stats haven't grown very much it would be better to spend the points on them sooner rather than later, since I can't guarantee there will be a later. Also I don't want to immediately run out of mana any time I exert my powers like when I attacked Stormtiger. More mana = More power = Not dead yet. Speaking of Stormtiger, I could check online news sites and see if he survived. I know that The Empire is going to go after me if they ever figure out who I am, which while unlikely is still possible due to Mysterious Stranger. I'd like to know if they just want to forcibly recruit me or kill me, depending on how Stormtiger turned out. But that was really unlucky of me to stumble on the breakout attempt in the first place, and -.

A thought struck me. The CYOA, I remember getting disadvantages but I forgot what they were. I at least know I picked something that de-aged me and something that dropped me off in the forest. Could this be one of those disadvantages? Crap I think it is, and if I had one gang get pissed at me then odds are I picked the thing to other two too. The ABB and Merchants are also going to get pissed at me somehow. Oh goddammit, I might have even more that I can't remember. Going to the PRT is sounding like an even better idea right now. But I want to level my skills up a bit beforehand, but if I delay I may end up accidentally pissing off one of the ABB capes. My odds of survival are not good against a teleporting psychopathic suicide bomber and the dragon of Kyushu. The Merchants were probably still a legitimate threat to me since they had a vehicle tinker who could just built a laser gun turret and turn me to Swiss cheese. But if I go to the PRT and then gain the enmity of those two it could cause tensions to increase and a gang war would be imminent. Or I may just be worrying too much. Anyway, while I was worrying I almost missed my stop, which would have been embarrassing.

I arrived at Brockton Bay Central Library. The building itself was somewhat impressive. Concrete columns held up the entrance roof while a set of a dozen steps elevated the building above the sidewalk. I entered into the air conditioned building and took in the place. It was what you would expect of a library. High ceilings, rows upon rows of bookshelves with labels at the beginning of each row for genre and alphabetical organization, desks for checkouts, computers for public use, and tables for studying or reading. I asked a librarian if I needed a library card to use the computers and she said I did not, surprisingly enough. But I would have to wait since all the computers were occupied. While I waited I started browsing the various shelves in the fiction and nonfiction sections, spamming 'Observe' as much as possible. Mostly it just gave me the title of the book, its current condition, and a one or two sentence synopsis of the storyline. Nothing really jumped out at me, but I grabbed a couple fantasy novels that interested me for later reading. While looking through the nonfiction section I found a selection of books about training the body and physical exercises. One more 'Observe' seemed to be enough and I got a notification.

 **Observe's Level has increased by 1!**

Neat. I grabbed a book called 'Training without weights, a guide to a poor man's workout routine'. Quickly flipping through I find that it's a bunch of exercises using body weight as your own weight. Not really useful when I can do bench presses with something 10x my weight.. Putting it back I walk over to the computer section and find an empty computer. Sweet! I login as a guest and start my online search. It turns out that google isn't a thing here but Wikipedia still is, so I start looking up and researching everything I could about all the capes within Brockton Bay and a few more like Dragon and the current S9 roster. I also needed more info on how the PRT and Protectorate would respond to a 9 year old parahuman and what would need to happen for me to become a Ward.

 **3 hours later…**

I managed to get a good grip on the local cape scene, even better since I could fill in a few gaps of the online Wikipedia with my own. Though I prevented myself from making any edits even when some villain profiles bothered me immensely with how little info they actually had. A small dip into recent headlines shows that hookwolf escaped and that Stormtiger, while injured, was not killed but managed to escape with the help of an Empire cape. Some people are speculating as to why Stormtiger's powers went wonky but no leads there. Someone took a picture of Menja chasing a blurred image in the distance, I don't think that was photoshop at all and there were a few videos from ground view of the battle but they were blocked by the library's filtering program. A little research into PRT Ward guidelines brought a frown to my face. First you can only be an official Ward if you are at least 10 years old. I think I could fake that kind of easily. Physically 9 and mentally an adult can pass as normal 10 year old. What wouldn't be easy is before the PRT is legally allowed to offer me membership to be a Ward I must show my cape identity along with my legal identity. If I can't get legal documentation I'll have to go through the process of making an ID before they'd even consider me. To get an ID I need to be a citizen of the state. To do that I need to be a citizen of a country. To do that I need a birth certificate or some legal document that states I came from another country. To do that I need to go and somehow deport and report myself while deleting all evidence of my deportation. Or I can just ask them nicely and try to convince them I'm from a parallel dimension where Parahumans aren't a thing. Then that'll bring up inter-dimensional politics and I **DO NOT** want to open that can of worms.

'Oh jesus christ. I thought people were exaggerating when they said the PRT was tied up in red tape. This is going to be harder than I thought.'

On the bright side all this research brought me two new notifications.

 **Due to intensive study on world events your Intelligence has increased by 1!**

 **Due to not being an idiot and doing your homework your Intelligence has increased by 1!**

The thought of my ID predicament brought up my memory of how Miss Militia came to the country, so I looked up her profile as well. Turns out that she was a special case, being on the Inaugural Wards Team allowed her to avoid the later rules and regulations on who could be a Ward. While reading the website I found a small link in her wikipedia page hidden in the details of a picture of her as a Ward I didn't notice before. Clicking on it brought up public contact details consisting only of an email address and the PRT help line. I copied the email address into a notepad and then made up a throwaway email account, writing the info on a sticky note with a pen I found, and composed a message.

From: dovetails68852 

To: MMpublic 

Subject: Urgent! Advice needed.

Hello Miss Militia. I love your work and how you help to clean up the streets to make Brockton Bay a safer place to live in. I'd love to get some advice in regards to the PRT Wards program. Since you yourself were a refugee to the country with little to no documentation I thought you would be the best person to contact about this problem I have. You see, I've recently triggered as a parahuman under extraordinary circumstances which have left me without any ID or legal documents that Prove I exist. The safest option for me that I can see so far would be to join the Wards program, both for the safety that a team brings but also to test and improve my powers in a controlled environment. But I cannot do this without a legal ID according to the PRT website. Kind of urgent I get into the Wards because I may have had an altercation with the E88 trying, and succeeding, to free hookwolf from birdcage transport. I was trying to stop them where I could. Remember that time on the overpass when Stormtiger decided to dive face first into someone's windshield? That was my doing. And when Menja jumped off the overpass to go after someone and ended up breaking both of that person's legs before leaving them to bleed out in a ditch? Well that was also me, I got better. I read the news and Stormtiger didn't die from his free fall so that's a load off of my mind. Lastly, also due to my unusual trigger circumstances, I am homeless in Brockton Bay at the moment so a quick reply would be nice, hopefully with good news. If you need to find me just send me a response and I'll try to check my email daily through public computers. I'll also be hanging around the boat graveyard, mostly so I can test my powers in peace, but also so I can rest at night somewhere that isn't a dirty alleyway or rooftop. If you need proof that I am indeed a parahuman and not some random kid trying to get a meeting with a hero here's this little tidbit.

I _**remember**_ the vision that happened during my trigger event.

Yours Sincerely,

Avatar (unless that's taken, if it is just call me bob or whatever)

P.S. You're not alone in BB anymore. I don't need to sleep either!

P.S.S. I'm glad you didn't step on that landmine in 1985.

P.S.S.S. Sorry for bringing up bad memories.

I think that's sufficient. I sent the email and put the sticky note in my pocket, hoping her account isn't run by an automated bot.

I then began to research the cape name I came up with to see if it was available. A few searches later and I found out that it used to be taken by a Villain with Master powers, but he died when Behemoth smashed the city he was in back in 2007. If I do end up in the Wards that could be a PR issue, but I'll get to that if/when I join the Wards.

With that my research is mostly completed. All I need to do is plot my potential stat gains on a graphing program for my stats and I'm done. But, an ad on the side of the screen gave me pause. It was an ad for a generic virtual casino game.

'Wait, can I train my luck through a virtual slot game?'

I searched for online casino games that were free, having to go through half a dozen sites that were blocked by the library before finding one. I played with it for a few minutes, losing almost every single spin and winning little when I did win. I ended up having to refresh the page three times to refill my fake money before I got lucky. 3 7's of different colors lined up and a colorful animation of coins falling off the screen played as a new notification screen popped up.

 **For striking it rich your luck has increased by 1!**

I smiled a gleeful smile and continued to play on the slot game. Well, I tried to. At least until a librarian caught me playing the game and forced me off of the computers. Dammit all!


End file.
